WARD ROOM OF THE JULIA DECKER 5 



evening. Halifax, with its squat, smoky, irregular streets is 

 well known, and its numerous public buildings, drill barracks, 

 and well kept public gardens, all backed by the frowning cita- 

 del, probably need no description from me. After receiving 

 the letters for which we came in, and sending the courteous 

 United States Consul General, Mr. Frye, and his vice-consul, 

 Mr. King, Colby '89, ashore with a series of college yells that 

 rather startled the sleepy old town, we laid a course down the 

 harbor, exchanged salutes with the steamship Caspian, and 

 were soon ploughing along, before a fine south-west breeze 

 for Cape Canso. 



While our little vessel is driving ahead with wind well over 

 the quarter, groaning, as it were, at the even greater confusion 

 in the wardroom than when we left Rockland, owing to the ad- 

 ditional supplies purchased at Halifax, it may be well to briefly 

 describe her appearance, when fitted to carry seventeen Bow- 

 doin men in her hold in place of the lime and coal to which 

 she has been accustomed. Descending, then, the forward 

 hatch, protected by a plain hatch house, the visitor turns 

 around and facing aft, looks down the two sides of the immense 

 centreboard box that occupies the centre of our wardroom 

 from floor to deck. Fastened to it are the mess tables, nearly 

 always lighted by some four or five great lamps, which serve 

 to warm as well, as the pile of stuff around and beneath the 

 after-hatch house cuts off most of the light that would other- 

 wise come down there. On the port side of the table runs the 

 whole length of the box; two wooden settles serve for dining 

 chairs and leave about four feet clear space next the "deacon's 

 seat" that runs along in front of the five double-tiered berths. 

 These are canvas-bottomed, fitted with racks, shelves, and the 

 upper ones with slats overhead, in which to stow our overflow- 

 ing traps. 



At the after end, on both sides of the wardroom, are large 

 lockers coming nearly to the edge of the hatch, in which most 

 of the provisions are stowed. At the forward end, next to the 

 bulkhead that separates us from the galley, are, on the port 



