362 Notes on Sport and Travel iv 



sailed we had a lovely little golden-crested wren on 

 board for some time, and it was pretty and quaint 

 to see the tiny thing peering and prying about the 

 iron-tips of the mighty broadside guns. A sparrow- 

 hawk also came on board, and oddly enough flew 

 away in a direction opposite to the land. Jack is 

 just like a great child, and goes skylarking and 

 heaving his hat at the birds, and consequently over- 

 board, to the diminution of his wages, till the Just 

 Influence comes down on him like thunder and 

 scatters him to the four winds of heaven. He is 

 always in trouble is Jack, and likewise Bill the 

 marine. Every morning there is a sm.all row of the 

 United Services, standing just abaft of the mainmast 

 in charge of two marines with drawn bayonets. At 

 twelve o'clock, I think, the hour when something 

 wonderful happens to the ship, I see Jack the 

 prisoner say to Bill his keeper, " Off you go " in 

 a low voice, and away they all troop to some 

 mysterious place in the bowels of the ship. Like- 

 wise, every day after dinner, a long row of unfor- 

 tunates are drawn up on each side of the quarter- 

 deck, wombling and shambling and sniggering, each 

 with a tin, or more often a small white basin (with 

 which he generally scratches his stern incessantly), 

 soon after which the smell of rum pervades the ship, 

 and I am told that the black-listers have had their 

 grog, with a great deal more water in it than they 

 like. We have a glass of sherry and a biscuit as 

 soon as the sun is over the main-yards, which 



