FOREST AND STREAM 
645 
#4 §«l>«re- 
THE TRANS-CONTINENTAL EXPEDI¬ 
TION OF THE CALIFORNIA FISH 
COMMISSIONERS. 
“ The«e fishes are on their way from the Atlantic to the Paofle 
Ocean. Please give them the care that they deserve." 
Thus reacl the placards on a number of wooden and tin 
tanks in the New York Central railway station one night 
last June ; and before following the fishes on then- over¬ 
land journey let us see what these fishes are and what 
they deserve, for this is almost a new enterprise, and at 
once novel and interesting. On three large conical, 
wooden tanks is printed “ Lobsters." At once visions of 
red claws and midnight pangs arise, to bo quickly dis¬ 
pelled at sight of one of the ungainly, greenish-black in¬ 
mates of tlie tanks, carefully lifted to life and air. 
Rubber bands confine their pugnacious looking claws ; 
but this is the only restraint put upon their movements, 
for restraint proved fatal to the eighty or more lobsters 
who left this station five yearn ago, packed in moss and 
sponge. After patient and laborious experiment another 
attempt is to be made ; but this time the twenty large 
females, with 75,000 eggs each, disport themselves freely 
in the clear salt water. Constant aeration with wooden 
dippers—tin cannot be used with salt water—serves to 
supply the lobsters with air, and, what is equally impor¬ 
tant, prevents the salt water from becoming bad. The 
least taint would be irremediable and fatal, for no fresh 
supply can be obtained for seven days—every drop is 
precious. 
Next in importance to a sufficiency of air and good 
water is a maintenance of the proper temperature—hi 
case of the lobster, between 40 and 50 degrees. Ice can¬ 
not be used to cool salt water, for it would soon freshen 
it to a fatal degree ; so that it becomes an important prob¬ 
lem to devise ways to cool salt water. Necessity is the 
mother of invention, and necessity in this case has pro¬ 
duced three children; for near the tanks are three ways 
to be used to cool the salt water for tho lobsters, First, 
there are a number of large stone jugs filled with ice and 
salt. One of these immersed in the water furnishes a 
weak imitation of a lump of ice, but in addition to the 
care necessary to keep the jugs supplied with ice there is 
the additional disadvantage that the presence of the jugs 
in the tanks seriously interferes with the use of tho dip¬ 
pers in aerating. A better form of cooler is a stone tile 
filled with a freezing mixture of ice and salt and placed 
in the centre of a barrel of salt water. When the water 
around the tile becomes cold it is used to reduce tho tem¬ 
perature of the water in the tanks. By means of this 
cooler a supply of salt water at a temperature of 34 to 38 
degrees can be obtained. But better than either of the 
others is a kind of gigantic ice-cream freezer, with the 
common tin cooler replaced with a stone tile, six inches 
in diameter aud about four feet long, fitted with a wooden 
bottom. The tile, filled with salt water, is packed in ice 
and salt, By means of this simple contrivance salt water 
may be frozen at a temperature of 37 degrees. One of 
the lobsters met with a misfortune on the way from 
Boston, and consequently an obliging volunteer found 
busy work for two hours in removing some fifty or sixty 
thousand young lobsters from one of the tanks — little 
things scarcely larger than a pin-head, yet with claws 
and tail complete. Otherwise the lobsters are in fine 
condition. 
In three other wooden tanks are 135 striped bass (lahrax 
lineatus), most of them about three inches long. They 
were caught with considerable difficulty at Red Bank, 
New Jersey. 
This is the first time that striped bass have been trans¬ 
ported, and as they are a very delicate fish they require 
constant attention. Although taken from salt water in 
the Neversink River, where tho thermometer stood at 80 
degrees, experiment showed that they would live when 
confined in nothing but brackish water at a temperature 
of 00 degrees. The brackish water can be formed arti¬ 
ficially of spring water and sea salt—that is, salt made 
from "sea water—and ice can be used with impunity if 
eare is taken to add enough sea salt to maintain the 
proper degree of brackishness—a handful of the salt to a 
pail of melting ice being the proper proportion. 
Besides the saltwater fishes—lobsters aud striped bass— 
there are two tin tanks of freshwater black bass (microp- 
terus xalmoides), thirty-one large beauties, full of spawn. 
These game fish are from the cool waters of Lake Cham¬ 
plain, and are in cool spring water at 45 degrees. When 
comfortable they remain almost torpid on the bottom, a 
black mass, without sign of activity; but let the water 
grow warmer or aeration be neglected for a quarter of an 
hour, and they come to the top for air, and if neglected 
many minutes longer will turn on their backs and sink 
to the bottom dead. 
In two other tanks are 3,500 silver eels, about four 
inches long and slender as a knitting-needle. They were 
scooped out of the mud at Red Bank and at Boston. 
All the care of this expedition is upon Fir. Livingston 
Stone, the Deputy Fish Commissioner of the United 
States, whose wonderful success in transporting live 
fishes across the continent is only equalled by his success 
in hatching and transporting salmon-eggs from McCloud 
River, Cal. But though in charge of a United States 
Commissioner, this expedition is undertaken and main¬ 
tained under the auspices of the California State Fisli 
Commissioners, and to them is due the credit of its in- 
cep lion. The State may well be proud of the enterprise 
shown by its Commissioners in supplying its bays and 
rivers with the choicest varieties of Eastern fishes" 
As we have now become Bomewhat interested, per¬ 
haps, in the fate of this emigrant train, a few extracts 
from the diary of the expedition may not be out of 
place:— 
June, 18th. Thanks to the courtesy of the New York 
Central Railroad, the tanks with their precious contents 
were placed in a baggage car this morning at half-past 
one, and no change made through to Chicago. Mr. Stone 
aud his assistants were allowed access to the car, and 
everything was done to add to the comfort of man and 
fish. Few know the care necessary to insure the safe 
transportation of live fish, none hut those who have been 
engaged in it can realize the immense amount of re¬ 
sponsibility involved. Aerati on must be almost constant, 
and a luilf hour’s neglect will destroy tUe results of 
months’ preparation. The mere routine work of passing 
from one tank to another, raising a dipper full of water 
and pouring it back, is for a while mere play i and the 
first dav gives one the idea that, after all, the transporta¬ 
tion of live fish is not 6ueh a difficult undertaking. We 
reached Cleveland at 7 P.M., cheered by tile thought 
that not a fish had been lost. Careful preparation had 
left little to be done tho first day ; the coolers were all 
ready for use, arms were fresh, and excitement kept all 
busy. Ice and fingers were pounded alike without com¬ 
plaint. The day was perfect for our purpose, air cool, 
and sky cloudy. 
June 14th. Last night came our first trouble. The 
night was very cool; and, almost without warning, the 
temperature of the water m our tanks began to fall. The 
striped bass were the first to be troubled, their water fell 
to 55 deg., a change of 8 deg. in as many hours. Unfortu¬ 
nately, wo had no means of heating water ; hut by lively 
work at the dippers the water was kept at 55 deg., and, 
as the fish remained on the bottom, we hoped that no 
ill effects would follow; but at Chicago an examination 
of the tanks showed twenty dead bass on the bottom of 
one of the tanks. They were literally frozen to death, and 
nothing could be done for them. Taught by this experi¬ 
ence, we supplied ourselves with several tiny alcohol 
lamps so that for the remainder of our journey we shall 
be prepared for any emergency. 
The transfer at Chicago was made without difficulty ; 
tho Union Transfer Co. doing the work carefully and 
with dispatch. On the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy 
road we were given part of the provision car. Half a 
ton of ice was put on, the coolers filled, and everything 
prepared for a not afternoon. 
^ In the eel tanks were signs of trouble ; one of the tanks 
was crowded with nearly three thousand of the little 
creatures, and they began to be suspiciously quiot. 
Crowded as they were it was dangerous to plunge a dip¬ 
per among them, and aeration became almost impossi¬ 
ble. Soon after leaving Chicago, a pieco of turf was cut 
at one of the stations and about three hundred eels put 
with it into a bucket partially filled with water. The re¬ 
sult of this treatment was very satisfactory, as the eels 
seemed to revivo at once. A curious incident was ob¬ 
served late this afternoon, which for a time filled us all 
with anxiety and apprehension; tho lobsters that had 
hitherto evinced every sign of health and happiness, be¬ 
gan to droop—when lifted from the tanks their claws and 
tails fell limp, and between the joints of their Bhells there 
was a very dangerous looking display of white cartilage. 
They seemed to be dying; in fact, one of them was put 
into a pail that happened to bo near filled with fresh 
water, as there seemed to be no life in it; but the fresh 
water had a very good effect, and seen the lobster was 
clawing around apparently as fresh as if just out of the 
ocean. The other lobsters were at once treated to a fresli 
bath, and whether they bad been playing possum, or 
were suffering for want of air, or in want of a change of 
ah and water—at any rate, they all revived and for a 
time seemed as fresh as ever. All day, by incessant 
work with ice and salt, the temperature in the lobsters’ 
tanks was kept at 50 deg.; in the striped bass' tanks at 
60 deg, to 65 deg.; in the black bass’ at 43 deg. to 00 deg.; 
aud in the eels’ at about 57 deg.; this with the tempera¬ 
ture of the oar at 80 deg. 
June 15th. This morning we made our most difficult 
transfer, at Omaha. On account of the great amount of 
work and the short time allowed, it was very difficult to 
have everything done as it should be, and, in spite of all 
protestation, the tanks were left in the sun for some lit¬ 
tle while; consequently, after the train started, we had 
the disagreeable duty of taking seven of the black bass 
from the tanks. One lobster also, the one which spawned 
before reaching Albany, died, and became the prize of a 
wondering native whose astonishment was only equaled 
by his delight. 
The Elkhom, scene of the great fish tragedy in 1873, 
when the aquarium car full of fish was unceremoniously 
dumped into the river, was passed with a feeling of re¬ 
lief, and we begin now to look to the end. The tempera¬ 
ture to-day averaged a little higher; the lobsters’ rising 
to 53 deg. and 57 deg., the striped bass' to 66 deg., and the 
black bass' to 50 deg. 
June 1 6th. One tank full of eels all died to-day. and 
3,500 dead bodies were pitched into space. The tank was 
too crowded, and consequently the use of ice and dip¬ 
pers had been so restricted that heat and foul water be¬ 
came unbearable. The eels in the mud, however, are 
doing so well that we are consoled in tho loss by the 
thought that perhaps the problem of eel transportation 
has been solved. The eels thus packed require no care 
further than a lump of ice once or twice a day. Why 
then may not eels he packed iu mud and sent by express, 
with directions to messengers that the crates should be 
kept cool, as is done in the transportation of salmon 
eggs? 
June. nth. Our last change of cars was made to-day at 
Ogden, and we took up our position in half a large bag¬ 
gage car on the Central Pacific. After our rather 
cramped quarters on the Union Pacific we feel quite 
comfortable in our comparatively commodious quarters. 
One more lobster died to-day, but with that exception the 
fish seem as well as when first taken. As we Leave the 
plains the air grows cooler, and the temperature of the 
tanks can be kept lower; to-day the lobsters have 
averaged about 46 deg.; the striped bass, 40 deg,; the 
black bass, 43 deg. j and the eels, 58 deg. 
June 18th, This afternoon at Winnemueca a supply of 
Pacific Balt water met us, but unfortunately it is far from 
sweet. There was danger iu using it, and so we satisfied 
ourselves with redoubled efforts with the dippers on the 
Atlantic water. Oil account of the alkali and limestone 
deposits the water from Chicago to San Fi-anoisoo 
cannot be used with fish, and so it happens that no change 
of water is made from Albany to the journey's end, 
June 19 th. Our last day I Wlwt wonder that we feel 
jubilant. For the first time in history lobsters and 
"striped bass have been ourried alive for seven days and 
nights a distance of 8,600 miles, without any consider¬ 
able loss. A d mo very W been made that may prove of 
great practical use in the transportation of eels, and tho 
feasibility of keeping salt water for a week in good con¬ 
dition Jia* been dennmstrateij, We are about to complete 
the most speech,,fill expedition of the kind ever under¬ 
taken For three days aud nights aeration has not been 
intern ip wd for a minute, out now all join in a final effort 
, chut Ibn good results already obtained may not result in 
mortification aud defeat. At Sacramento wo were met 
by Mr. Redding and Mr. Throckmorton, of the California 
Fish Commission, who seemed delighted with the success 
of their undertaking. At Martinez, some thirty-six miles 
from San Francisco, tho train was stopped near the San 
Joaquin river, and the striped bass were placed in tha 
river, among some tulle. They at once showed their 
vitality and ‘ 1 level headedness” by striking out at full 
speed for the deep water, One hundred and ten fish of 
the one hundred and thirty-five that left Red Bank lived 
to seek pastures new thirty-five hundred miles from 
home. 
The eels were taken from Tracy to Sufiol, and were de¬ 
posited there in a muddy pool near the mouth of the San 
Joaquin. A steamer met the train at the Oakland wharf 
and conveyed the lobsters to their resting place in the 
muesle-bearing rocks near the Light. The black bass were 
taken to San Mateo, a few miles south of San Francisco, 
and placed in the Crystal Lake belonging to the Spring 
Talley Water Company. H. A. L. 
Seined and Hooked Mackerel.— The following is an 
extract from a letter from Capt. J. W, Collins, dated 
Gloucester, Mass., August 38th, 1879, addressed to the U. 
S. Fish Commission :— 
1 Mr. Geo. W. Woods, (quite an old gentleman,) of Bos¬ 
ton, a former employe of Frank Snow & Co., aud who 
worked for this firm thirty-five years, says that ho 1ms 
experimented with seined mackerel to find out how they 
kept- in comparison with those caught on a hook. He 
salted a half barrel of each very carefully, using the same 
quantity of salt, and pickling them very carefully. lie 
headed the half barrels up, and set them away about the 
1st of October, and when lie opened them the following 
spring, about the laBt of March, he found a marked dif¬ 
ference between them. The flesh of the mackerel that 
were caught on a hook was firm and in fine condition, 
while the flesh of those that were seined was short and 
mealy, retaining little or no firmness. He thinks this 
holds good in most cases. 
1 ' He also made some very careful experiments to find ou t 
how mackerel would keep in pickle made with fresli 
water. He salted and pickled two half barrels, using 
fresh water for one and salt for the other. He put 
them up in the fall and opened them the following July. 
He found a marked difference in them. Those filled with 
pickle made of salt water were in excellent condition, 
while the others had a dirty scum on the pickle and the 
flesh was dark and somewhat slimy, while the skin had 
a whitish, discolored appearance, and they were not 
thought fit to eat. He says that at present some of the 
Boston firms use fresh water very extensively in making 
pickle for fish, and think that when the fish are kept any 
length of time before they are eaten that they arc not 
fit for consumption, and as a consequence the sale or 
market for pickled fish is injured." 
^lafuntl t§istorv. 
A Rase Rail. — Mr. James Bryce, ;j r. , of Madison, N. 
J., shot on tho meadows near that place on the 10th inst. 
a yellow-creeted rail, sometimes known as the little yel¬ 
low rail (Fovzana noveboracensis). This little bird, on 
account of its secluded habits and disinclination to take 
wing, is very rarely shot. It is not a common s|*cies, 
and its habitat is confined to Eastern North America. 
THE SEA CUCUMBER. 
St. John’s, Newfoundland, July R'/fc.- 
A SHORT time ago a fisherman was using Ins .jig¬ 
ger” on one of the fishing-banks near the lirnbor 
St. John’s, and, on drawing it into the boat, ho found 
fastened on one of the hooks a curious creature wliL-h 
none of the fishing fraternity Rad ever scon before. 
It was brought to me, and for half a dollar 1 became 
possessor of the curiosity, whose appearance was I'm 
from prepossessing. I found it to measure eleven-inches 
in length and five or six inches in Cijouml'erence. In 
shape it was oblong 
covered with a tough leathery slcio, which to the touch 
was slimy and disagreeable. On examination I found 
running down its body five double rows of c-nalters, 
which divided it into an equal number of longitudinal 
segments or lobes. The mouth was surrounded with beau¬ 
tiful feathery tentacles branching in all directions, like 
tiny trees. Its figure strikingly resembled a cucumber ; 
and this, with the oilier obamatorlstic just named, en¬ 
abled me to determine that it was a sea cucumber, a 
singular anhnal, not uncommon, oh certain shores, but 
rarely if ever found on these coasts. The specimen was 
a very fine one as regards size. In the seas around the 
British Isles the sea cucumbers, or sea gherkins, are 
small; though occasionally in the Shetland seas a species 
about the same size as my specimen is taken, and gets the 
name of “ King of the Sea Cucumbers." It was kept 
alive a. short time in sea water in a basin, but as I 
observed it languid and gradually shrinking in size. 1 
terminated its sufferings by popping it into alcohol and 
adding it to my little private museum. In the alcohol, 
like all molluscous creatures, it has shrunk to a little 
over half its original Bize. 
Let ns look for a little at this ugly little creature, for it 
has peculiarities which render it well worthy of a careful 
study. Andfirstlet us see what its plaee is in the chain of 
being. Professor Huxley has proposed as the third sub- 
kingdom of tlie animal world the Annulotda, and in it 
he includes the two groups of the Enhinodermatn and the 
Sooleoida, He divides the Echinodermata into seven 
