226 
Report on the Trade in Animals. 
sarj that the law should be so altered as to place these matters 
on an equitable footing. 
Dutch Ports. — Having described in detail the arrangements 
at Hamburg, it will not be necessary to do more than glance at 
a few differences in those which prevail at Rotterdam and Har- 
lingen — the two principal ports of shipment in Holland. At 
all the Dutch markets and lairs the system of pens for cattle, 
with which we are familiar, is replaced by a system of posts and 
rails, the latter being furnished with rings at regular intervals. 
To these rings the beasts are tied by the head, and nothing can 
be more orderly and cleanly than the way in which everything 
is managed, from the railway to the market, thence to the 
dealers' lairs, and ultimately to the steamboat. The Dutch law 
is very strict as to inspection ; and not only are the stock in- 
spected on the market, but it is specially enacted that they must 
be examined, previous to shipment, in broad daylight by a 
Government inspector. I was also informed at Rotterdam that 
the shipping companies keep a veterinary surgeon in their 
employment to make an inspection on their own account. If 
it is considered for a moment that Holland is not a scheduled 
country, and that Dutch cows are in great request in England 
for dairy purposes, it will be admitted that these precautions are 
taken because it would not pay anybody concerned to send over 
diseased animals, which would probably condemn the whole cargo 
to immediate slaughter at the port of debarkation. It may 
also be mentioned that the Dutch fully appreciate the value of 
giving stock food and water previous to embarkation. 
The Eastern English Ports. — The chief British ports engaged 
in the trade in foreign cattle are naturally on the eastern coast ; 
but, as already stated, a small proportion of cattle are also im- 
ported into some of the southern and western ports. Table XI., on 
the following page, shows the number and kind of foreign animals 
landed at each port in 1871 ; and an examination of it seems to 
suggest the desirability of striking some of the less important off 
the list, and thus saving the expense of the inspectors who 
are, I presume, now appointed for the purpose of examining the 
few foreign animals which are landed there. 
Hull. — This port has acquired an unenviable reputation in 
consequence of its having been the inlet of cattle-plague into 
Great Britain both in 18G5 and 1872. It therefore seemed to 
me worth special inquiry whether any defect in the local 
arrangements might have been the cause of these invasions of 
the Rinderpest. Hull has the largest trade in foreign animals 
of any port on the north side of the Humber ; and, with the 
exception of Harwich and London, the largest in the United 
Kingdom. In 1871 as many as 71,176 foreign animals were 
