watering I have described. I lost money by that branch of my
business, and I gave it up. Although the loss by deterioration of
condition must have been great, it was astonishing how few deaths
occurred in the sailing-vessels; the proportion was greater in the
steamers. A year seldom passed without the shippers having heavy
losses. I was owner of part of the cattle when every beast on board the
Duke of Wellington, except three (one belonging to me, and he had to be
carted from the boat, and two belonging to Mr Farquharson of Asloun),
was either thrown overboard or smothered in the hold. The sailors told
that a blackhorned Bogieside ox, belonging to Mr Hay, swam for several
miles after the ship. I have made inquiry of the cattle-man as to the
scene in the hold of a steamer in a storm amongst the cattle. He said,
"I went once down to the hold amongst them, but I was glad to get back
with my life; and although you had given me the ship and all upon her,
I would not have gone back." He declared that, though you had set a
hundred men with heavy flails in operation at one time beating upon the
side of the ship, it would not have been worse than the legs of the
cattle beating upon each other and all within their reach.

The owners of the Aberdeen steamers have always been anxious to
accommodate their customers; and about twelve years ago they raised an
insurance fund for the protection of the shippers. They laid past one
shilling for every beast they shipped to meet deaths and accidents, and
they have most honourably paid the losses incurred by the shippers of
cattle. It is a good arrangement for both parties; it gives confidence
to the shippers, and no doubt has a tendency to make the owners more
careful in not sending their ships to sea if danger is apprehended. The
cattle go well by sea when the weather is moderate, but in rough
weather they are safer by rail. The above description will give some
idea of the hardships the poor beasts endure in the hold when overtaken
by a storm. I have seen my own cattle, after they were taken from the
hold of the steamboat at London, so changed in appearance that I could
not identify them, and could not tell whether they were black or grey.
I should most seriously advise the Railway Company to adopt some method
of insurance, to avoid the unseemly squabbles that are daily occurring
with the senders of live cattle and dead meat. It is not my province to
make any remarks on the late rise of th