These Degenerate Days. 



the food is not allowed to lie for years at foreign 

 depots before being used. 



Then, there is the improved system of pre- 

 serving meats, canning, etc., and the condensing 

 of water. Not only this, but every ship seems to 

 be supplied with a canteen, where all kinds of 

 preserves may be purchased a thing scarcely 

 known, in a sea-going ship, in my time. 



We sometimes had to exist on food that would 

 not be considered fit to offer for sale in this 

 country. I remember, on one occasion, that the 

 salt pork was so exceptionally bad that we took 

 it on the quarter-deck to protest against having 

 to eat it. We were in the South-Western 

 Pacific, among the " cannibal islands," at the 

 time, and had been living on salt provisions for 

 about eight months. The captain looked at the 

 meat, and very logically remarked : " It certainly 

 is very rich, but what are we to do ? There is 

 no other in the ship, so that if we pitch it over- 

 board we shall have to starve." So we had to 

 exist for another tw r o months on this "rich" 

 diet, with no change but an occasional cocoanut 

 or a banana, when we could get them. 



Here is a description of our provender : The 

 biscuit was so far gone with the weevil and 

 maggot that there was scarcely a piece to be 

 found, the size of a half-crown, that was not 

 perforated with these vermin, the greater part of 

 it being reduced to dust. This, with a pint of 

 cocoa, which was very ancient and had a 

 decidedly mouldy flavour, served without milk, 

 formed our breakfast. For dinner, there was a 

 little variation. Every alternate day, we had 



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