On WeigJdng Liue-SfocJ:. 
469 
While introducing this example of a modern sale note, no 
suggestion is intended that other London salesmen are not adopt- 
ing a similar form. In fact, Messrs. Hincks & Lyall, at the 
Metropolitan Market, give the same information. To return 
again to Scotch practice on a large scale. It seems advisable 
not to let the opportunity go by of giving an account of Messrs. 
Swan & Sons' great November auction of stores this year at the 
Haymarket, Edinburgh, on Monday, November 11, in continua- 
tion of a similar sale on November 12 last year, when 2,736 cattle 
were on show. Messrs. Swan then furnished some intelligence 
as to weights and prices of animals, taken at random at their 
auction, with the names of the graz,iers and the purchasers, 
with weights, prices per head, per cwt., and per stone; but the 
fact of taking these animals out at random, without reference 
to age, breed, or condition, lessened the value of the information 
for statistical purposes, though it was instructive as far as it 
went, and as a witness of the extended use of the scales at 
that date. 
This year, however, Messrs. Swan have suggested the adop- 
tion of method in tabulating values and weights of the different 
breeds and ages of animals consigned to them for disposal, a 
proof of their readiness to assist inquiry by a systematised 
statement of facts, and making an account of their sales more 
generally instructive. 
The market or show-yard in the Haymarket adjoins the 
rails of the North British Railway at their Haymarket Station, 
and consists of two large covered sheds with span roofs and 
free communication between them. The cattle are admitted 
from the railway trucks and wharf through sliding doors at one 
end, and are passed down the gangways into lateral pens. One 
of these large sheds — one half, indeed, of the market — is provided 
at the far end with a large pen, the bottom of whicli is the 
platform of a Pooley's weighing-machine. This platform will 
carry and balance eight full-sized beasts, and of course more 
younger cattle. A large side-gate on it gives the cattle access 
to the ring, or rather semicircle, in which the auction takes 
place. Side by side with this gate from the weighbridge is 
another, opening into one of the main gangways of this shed, 
by which the cattle pass back and out after having been offered 
for sale. On an elevated stand inside the ring and immediately 
adjoining the machine, which itself is outside the ring, a clerk 
is stationed, having the beam of the machine under his eye and 
hand. An opening in the wall enables him to communicate 
directly with the drovers as they pen the cattle on the platform. 
He thus obtains the numbers. On a slate tablet on the wall 
