470 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
the tauks and 48° at the top. Leaving Boston at 9 p. m., the weather grew cold dur- 
ing the night, the thermometer falling to about 20°, the temperature in the tanks 
reaching 36° at the bottom and 42° at the top. Albany was reached at 4 a. m., Janu- 
ary 15, and at 8 a. m. the lobsters were overhauled ; this operation requiring three 
hours. Only two females and one male had died during the night. The temperature 
in the tanks during this day ranged from 37° to 40° at the bottom, and from 41° to 
48° at the top. 
The car left Chicago at 6.50 a. m. on the 16th, the examination of the lobsters 
taking place about two hours later. Eleven were found dead, seven being males and 
four females. The temperature in the tanks during the day varied from 37° to 47° at 
the bottom, and from 44° to 51° at the top. Up to this time the prospects were exceed- 
ingly encouraging, and it looked as though the trip would be made withonly a very slight 
percentage of loss; but disappointment was ahead and it came in a manner entirely 
unexpected and unprovided for. The previous summer it had been necessary to fight 
the extreme heat, and it seemed as though the tauks could not be made too cold. On 
the present occasion, however, the conditions were precisely the reverse, and a very 
heavy mortality occurred through the low temperatures which prevailed during the 
middle part of the journey. In giving the temperatures observed from day to day in 
the tanks, it should be remembered that they are the readings of the thermometers 
in only a few positions, the temperature probably varying considerably in different 
parts of the tanks at the same time. 
During the night of the 16th the weather grew colder, and some of the trays were 
taken from the tanks and placed on the floor of the car to warm them up. At 9.30 on 
the morning of the 17th the temperature of the air outside the car had fallen to 10° 
below zero, and at that time the trays were overhauled, with the result of finding 
fifty five dead lobsters, thirty-seven being males and eighteen females. The trap-doors 
to the tanks were now left open for the purpose of raising the temperature about the 
trays, but with no appreciable effect. The car reached St. Paul, Minnesota, at 2 p. m. 
and left at 4 p. m.' At 11.15 the same evening steam was turned into the pipes run- 
ning through the bottom of the tanks, but the hot air instead of becoming diffused, 
rose to the top along certain paiTs of the tanks, superheating some portions and leav- 
ing others uninfluenced. A small amount of ice formed during the night on the sides 
of the tauks toward the wind. During the 17th the thermometer registered from 32° 
to 37° at the bottom and from 34° to 37° at the top of the tanks. 
At 3 a. m., January 18, the temperature outside the car had fallen to 25° below 
zero. Steam was kept up all night and part of the day, the temperature ranging from 
32° to 36° at the bottom of the tanks and from 49° to 52° at the top, this difference 
between the temperature at the top and bottom resulting from the steam heat. At 8 
o’clock in the morning eighty-one dead lobsters were removed, forty-one being males 
and forty females. 
January 19 the outside temperature had risen to 2° below zero, and no steam was 
used during the day. At 9 o’clock in the morning ninety-seven lobsters, fifty-three 
females and forty-four males, were found dead, and many of those still living were 
observed to be in poor condition. The temperature at the bottom of the tanks 
ranged from 34° to 38°, and at the top from 48° to 52°. 
January 20 there was an abundance of snow and the weather was still cold. At 
