A PATENT HAMMOCK. 



chored in a harbour named Sheik el Baghout, where we 

 must remain till daybreak. 



In the meantime we are not allowed to go on shore, 

 owing to quarantine being in force for some parts of the 

 coast. The nights are so warm that we have preferred 

 sleeping on deck, and Ranfurly has had to set up a 

 patent hammock, with which some of our party have 

 also been supplied, and here it certainly answers ad- 

 mirably. Its chief points of fixture are two very strong 

 iron pins made like a corkscrew, which are meant to be 

 screwed into the earth, but now have been driven into 

 the deck, though the Captain, curiously enough, did 

 raise some slight objection to the proceeding. These 

 screws are placed at a short distance beyond the ham- 

 mock, to which they are fastened by ropes, and the ham- 

 mock is thus raised about a foot from the ground and 

 made taut by fixing a forked stick about midway 

 beneath the connecting ropes at each end. They are 

 certainly pretty, but I doubt their being good serviceable 

 beds for travelling over varied soils, and they have one 

 disadvantage in being very expensive, each, if I remember i 

 rightly, costing over io/. M. Marcopoli has proved him- 

 self a most agreeable addition to our present circle, and 

 it is he to whom Sir Samuel Baker refers so frequently 

 in ' Ismalia ' as Marco Polo. He is a Greek, and has so 

 thoroughly mastered Arabic that he not only speaks the 

 language, but also reads it with perfect facility. 



