462 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
coast alive, the trip having consumed about six days from Albany. “ The lobsters 
were carried to Oakland Wharf by the writer,” says Mr. Stone, “ where they were met 
by a steamer chartered for the purpose, which took them to the Bonito light-house, 
under the shadow of which, in a sheltered bay a few miles outside the Golden Gate, 1 
had the pleasure of lilacing them with my own hands — the first lobsters ever intro- 
duced into the Pacific Ocean. They were all in splendid condition except one, and had 
with them over a million eggs nearly ready to hatch.” 
EXPERIMENTS PRECEDING THE FOURTH SHIPMENT. 
In accordance with instructions from Professor Baird, Gapt. H. 0. Chester, 
then superintendent of the Wood’s Holl station of the Fish Commission, made a series 
of experiments during the spring of 1886, with the view of devising some means of 
transporting live lobsters long distances without the use of a large supply of sea- water. 
His experiments were directed mainly in one line, that of packing them in moist rock- 
weed, and reducing the temperature of their surroundings. It is needless to describe 
his experiences in detail, but the following method was found to give the most satis- 
factory results : 
A zinc box (tin or galvanized iron would answer as well), measuring 22 inches 
long by 18 inches wide and 13 inches deep, was inserted in a wooden box of sufficiently 
large size to allow an interspace between the two all around of about 5 inches. Each 
of these boxes was separately drained at the bottom by means of a small pipe, and the 
inner one had a central opening above large enough to afford ventilation and facilitate 
the packing. The interspace between the boxes was completely filled with powdered 
ice. The lobsters were packed in the zinc box in one layer between two layers of 
rock-weed. The temperature was maintained as nearly as possible between 42° and 
44° Fahr. The rock-weed was moistened in the beginning, and on the third, 
sixth, and ninth days a quart of sea water was sprinkled over it. This was all the 
wetting the lobsters received, but on the eleventh day, when they were removed, they 
were apparently in as good condition as when taken from the water. A second lot 
was kept in the box nine days, with only a single wetting and without injury, seeming 
to require only moist air for respiration when the temperature is low. The eggs 
adherent to the swimmerets of the female also remained that length of time in good 
condition. 
It was Captain Chester’s idea that in making a distant shipment a number of 
these cases should be used. The facilities for shipping offered by the special cars of 
the Fish Commission, however, rendered it unnecessary to make use of these somewhat 
complicated appliances, as explained farther on. One of the most interesting results 
of his experiments was the information that rock-weed could be kept fresh, by slight 
wetting, a long period of time, remaining as sweet and elastic as when first cut from 
the rocks. 
FOURTH TRIAL— JUNE, 1888. 
Fish Commission car No. 3, in charge of Mr. J. F. Ellis, with the Commissioner, 
Col. Marshall McDonald, and the writer on board, reached Wood’s Holl, Massachusetts, 
on the afternoon of June 14, 1888, for the purpose of beginning the fourth shipment of 
lobsters to the California coast. The superintendent of the Fish Commission station 
at that place had previously been advised of the proposed shipment and was instructed 
