The First California Aquarium Car [pp. 311-315]

1874.] THE FIRST CALIFORNIA AQUARIUM CAR.
THE FIRST CALIFORNIA AQUARIUM CAR.
The September number of the OVERLAND has informed our readers as to
our preparations for carrying certain
Eastern fish alive to California; we were
just ready to start with our precious
charge. At fifteen minutes past two the
Vermont Central express train steamed
up to the station from which we were
to set out-Charlestown, N. H.-the engine was switched off to the side- track,
and our car was coupled to the train. A
large company of our friends had collected at the station to see us off, and to
wish us a prosperous journey; and in a
moment more, amid the hearty cheers
and congratulations of the crowd, and
the waving of hats and handkerchiefs, the
doomed car started westward. Like the
Sicilian expedition, its departure was as
auspicious as its end was disastrous.
Owing to some of the railroad companies declining positively to take us along
with their passenger trains, the contract
made by the California Commissioners
with the Central Pacific Railroad Company, which furnished the car, provided
transportation for it by freight trains
east of Chicago, and by passenger trains
west of Chicago only.
On investigation, it was found that it
would take six days to reach Chicago by
freight travel, which with the five days
on passenger trains from Chicago to
California would make at least eleven
days in all, while unavoidable delays
would probably extend the time to twelve
or thirteen days. This was obviously
suicidal. The lobsters and shad would
certainly be lost, with probably the trout,
tautogs, and glass-eyed perch, and perhaps all the other fish. So long ajourney
day and night, with incessant care and
labor, would be very wearing, and prob
ably disabling to one or more of the
party in charge. I felt that it was absolutely necessary that a change should be
made, and accordingly applied personally to the railroad companies, requesting them to extend to us the accommodation of traveling with passenger trains.
They replied that it was imnpossible, and
it was only after my presenting the urgency of the case in its very strongest
light that they began to yield. The Vermont Central was the first to accede,
then came the Boston and Albany Railroad, then the Connecticut River Railroad, and then the New York Central.
The Great Western and Michigan Central offered no objections. This completed the connection between Charlestown and Chicago, and thus was obviated
another and perhaps the greatest difficulty that stood in the way of our success.
The car when it left Charlestown contained upward of sixty breeding black
bass (Grystesfasciatus) from Lake Champlain; twelve breeding glass-eyed perch
(~uciofierca); eighty young yellow perch
(Percaflavescens)from Missisquoi River;
twelve breeding bull- heads (hornpouts)
(Pimelodus); I I breeding cat-fish (Pinmelodus) from Raritan River, New York;
20 tautogs (Tautoga Americana), and
15,oo000 salt - water eels (,4 nguilla) from
near Martha's Vineyard; i,ooo young
trout (Salrno fontinalis) from Charlestown, N. H.; 1i62 breeding lobsters from
Massachusetts Bay and Wood's Hole,*
and one barrel of oysters from Massachusetts Bay.
Besides the fish above enumerated, I
took on at Albany 40,000 fresh-water
* The black bass, bull-heads, cat-fish, and lobsters
were full of spawn.
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