210 
Repoit on the Trade in Animals. 
coming to ami going from the fair. There was no provision for 
giving water to the cattle in these hoof-poached paddocks, for 
the Transit of Animals (Ireland) Order does not compel railway 
companies to have water-troughs at their cattle-sidings ; and 
although the swollen Suck was flowing at a very trifling dis- 
tance from the station, 1 did not see a single lot of cattle driven 
to the river-side. This might not have been the fault of the 
owners or the drovers, for I was unable to ascertain whether 
there was any convenient public approach to the stream from 
near the railway-station. However, the points to be kept in 
view are these : — 1st, the railway company did not supply 
their pens and paddocks with troughs of water ; and 2nd, the 
cattle had to commence their journey without that refreshment, 
after having already been kept, in all probability, at least 24 hours 
without food or water. 
Arriving in Dublin on the Friday evening, I ascertained 
that cattle from Ballinasloe would probably reach North Wall 
in a more or less continuous stream during the night and the 
next day ; and as many as possible would be put on board the 
steamboats timed to leave for the various English ports by the 
morning and evening tides on Saturday. The probability of 
their being fed and watered in the receiving-yards belonging to 
the various railway and steamboat companies is, as will presently 
be seen, very small indeed, except in the yard belonging to an 
English railway company. 
As a matter of fact, therefore, the majority of the cattle 
bought at Ballinasloe fair for exportation to Great Britain were 
not fed or watered from Thursday until Sunday, at the earliest. 
Those that were sent by the London and North- Western Rail- 
way Companies' boats, via North Wall and Holyhead, doubtless 
obtained water, and perhaps a little hay, on Saturday morning at 
North Wall, and at Holyhead on Saturday night or Sunday 
morning. The remainder were shipped to Liverpool, Bristol, 
Glasgow, and other ports, without having had food or water 
for at least two days, during which they underwent the fatigue 
of the journey by road or rail to Ballinasloe, that of standing in 
the fair and the railway paddock nearly all one day, if not 
part of another, and that of the railway journey from Balli- 
nasloe to Dublin (92 miles). After their two days' fast and 
fatigue, they had to stand in the hold of a steamboat during a 
sea-passage varying in duration from 12 to 24 hours, and to un- 
dergo the hardships incidental to the shipment, to the passage, and 
to the subsequent landing, before receiving even a drop of water. 
I have taken Ballinasloe fair as the starting-point of this part 
of the subject simply because there is ofiicial evidence of the 
condition of the cattle on their arrival ; but what is true of 
