238 
Report on the Trade in Animals. 
between Hellevoetsluys and Harwich. The beasts were packed 
as tightly as in the Irish trade, and they came out of tlie hold in 
the same steaming condition ; while the sheep, which had been 
packed on the bridge, were doubtless suffering from the other 
extreme of temperature. Between Rotterdam and Harwich the 
cattle are not fed and watered, as the shortness of the average 
passage renders it unnecessary ; and the difference in the con- 
dition of the beasts when landed seemed to me entirely due to 
overcrowding and consequent insufficient ventilation. 
The steamboats engaged in the Irish traffic are, for the most 
part, managed in the same manner as the Harwich boats. Saw- 
dust is used as litter, the beasts are packed as closely as possible, 
and the ventilation is generally more or less insufficient. These 
conditions produce a very foul atmosphere, containing a large 
quantity of moisture exhaled from the bodies of the animals, and 
a remarkable quantity of ammonia, sulphuretted hydrogen, and 
other disagreeable gases. As a consequence it is almost impos- 
sible for a man not accustomed to the duty to remain in th& 
hold even for a minute, the efi'ect upon his eyes being far worse 
than that of the reddest London fog. The ammoniacal gases 
also irritate the nose and the throat, while the exhalations from 
the solid excreta are far more potent than what would generally 
be considered sufficient to induce, if not to generate, fever in. 
human habitations. The effect of such conditions upon an 
animal that has fasted for two or three days seems to me too 
obvious to require explanation. 
The temperature is not so high as might perhaps be antici- 
pated. Blood-heat is 98° Fahr., and the temperature of the 
hottest part of the body of even a diseased animal does not often 
rise to more than 1U5°. The comparatively low average tem- 
perature of 80^ which prevails in the hold of a cattle-boat is, 
therefore, easily explained by the fact that the large quantity of 
moisture continually being generated in the hold, and passed 
through its atmosphere, absorbs, and retains latent, a vast quan- 
tity of heat to keep it in the state of steam. 
The extent of the evaporation of moisture from the bodies of 
animals closely packed in a steamboat can scarcely be realised 
by those who have not witnessed the landing of a large cargo of 
Irish beasts. Mr. Walters * has mentioned the fact that when 
the importations from Ireland via Bristol consisted chiefly of 
pigs, one who saw the vessels arrive " needed nothing but one's 
nose to know what they had for a cargo," At the present day 
the landing of a large cargo of beasts is not unfrequently made 
known to people at a short distance by the mist they create, in 
consequence of the exhalation of steam from their bodies. 
* 'Food Journal,' vol. iv., No. 37, Fcbrnary 1873, p. 17. 
