PERPETUAL SHOW IN LONDON.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 471, 14 May 1890, Page 6

PERPETUAL SHOW IN LONDON.

A Glimpse of the Frozen-Meat Trade. One must leave fche fine central avenues of Leadenhall Market and plunge into its byways to find the real interest and amusement of the place. A canary in a six-inch square cage hops round on the top of a box containing its arch enemy, a Satanic-look jng tom cat, and white mice run fearlessly n and out of their scanty cover quite unaware that an owl is blinking dazedly within a few inches Anyone may see these things, but few, very few, even of those whose daily occupations lie in or round the market have ever penetrated the chill depths which give London the right to claim ice and snow all the year round with the higher Alps or the Himalayas. These are the huge cellars in which the frozen meat and poultry are stored. The first chamber to see is anything but Arctic,for it is the engine-room where the great beautifully burnished force for creating vapour is throbbing and moving at high pressure. The process used is the simply scientific one of anhydrous ammonia, a chemical so intensely cold that it boils at 40deg. Fahr., below zero. This passing round and mixing with vapour in hermetically closed pipes, generates the cold required, and so perfect ie the whole system that the same ammonia and vapour have been endlessly passing round for nearly two years. All the ice required in the market is made here, in pure crystalline blocks weighing about 48lb each. About eight tons of this are -made and used daily during the summer, and as all care is exercised concerning the water employed, it is reassuring to think that the danger of foreign ice brought from contaminating foreign lakes are thus obviated.

A passing glimpse into a ‘ chilling room ’ shows that it is crowded from floor to ceiling with baskets of Norman and Dutch butters. ‘ Butter is ruined if ibis actually frozen,’ observes the guide, ‘so when that is in store we keep the temperature at 33 deg. Some heavy doors are pushed back, and we are in an immense chamber with stacks of New Zealand mutton on all hands. ‘ There are 900 carcases in here at this moment,’ we are informed, ‘and another thousand are coming in to-morrow morning.’ Every one is wrapped in a thin muslin, to keep it from dust, and it is frozen as hard as marble. The point of a knife hardly makes any impression on it at this stage. It is all rather small compared with English meat; but is obviously of the best quality and in firstrate condition. One wonders how much of it will be paid for by the British housekeeper as ‘ Prime Welsh.’ To see the place at its best the electric light should be upon it, and then there sparkles and glistens a dazzling frieze all round the walls of purest snow. All the moisture given off by the various things stored collects round the pipes of the freezing system, and as chese have large metal plates fixed about 18 inches apart, for the purpose of radiating the cold air, the top of the room is hung with this wonderful snow wreath like a spangled drapery of diamond - sprinkled silver and white brocade. It collects so quickly that twice a year it all has to be moved. The floor is of wood—for concrete and asphalt were tried, but the continuous frost, of which there ie never less than 12 degrees (20 degrees Fahr.) caused them to crack in all directions.

Another department is filled with crate after crate of Russian fowls, ducks, turkeys, and game, roughly estimated to be worth at their wholesale value not less than £5,000. We climb over barrels of caviar to look at some ten or twelve West Indian turtles, some of which had been there for more than eight months, and who are certainly experiencing a change from the tropics to the plains ; and then scores and scores of pheasants, partridges, and hares come into sight. There is a fashion now on the part of sportsmen to send a few brace of game here for preservation during the spring, and many were the well - known titles and names to be read. The little luxurj' of having pheasants in May can be realised thus at a cost of threepence a head per month. Lastly, were several barrels and trollies completely filled with pigeons, all carefully deprived of their wings. The guide smiled over the amazement it was impossible bo help expressing, and explained, * There are 3,000 of them here, and they arrived alive from Antwerp the day before yesterday. They were slaughtered as rapidly as possible in the market, and their wings were bought by the makers of cheap ornaments for hats. They are destined bo feed a cargo of stoats going out to the Antipodes to combat the plague of rabbits.'