70 THE ACCLIMATISATION 



he says in his letter to the Times, in July, 

 1875 — rests with himself. Defeat must 

 apparently be insured by the system of 

 arrangement of alternate layers of boxes 

 and ice, and the inevitable violence it must 

 entail on the ova, when the ice melts and 

 allows the boxes to knock about in the ice- 

 house, sustaining a shock with every motion 

 of the ship. The condition of the moss in 

 the boxes on arrival is described as " sodden," 

 and there is no difficulty in understanding 

 this impacted state of a fibrous vegetable 

 material, kept continually wet by the water 

 from the ice, supposing it to have been 

 much shaken. When closely packed upon 

 the floor of the ice-house (as had been done 

 in all the successful instances) the boxes, 

 cannot possibly move. The motion of the 

 vessel carries them bodily with itself, and 

 the ice does not move them. They are 

 practically as firmly fixed as any of the 

 ship's timbers, and the water from the ice, 

 after passing through them, is done with^ 

 and drains into the bilge. By the system 

 of alternate boxes and ice the water must 



