BE]srAEES, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS. 89 



fear of soiling the deck. The first shark I ever caught was at 

 Nassau, B. I., from the deck of the steamer City of New York, and 

 while I was gone below for a knife, Captain Deakin ordered a sailor 

 to "heave that overboard before he makes a mess of it." But Cap- 

 tain Deakin despised second-class passengers on principle, and never 

 lost an opportunity to do them a mean turn ; in which he was like 

 nearly aU the other American and English steamship officers I ever 

 met. 



The banks of the Hoogly sink by such a gentle gradient into 

 the Bay of Bengal that the mouth of the river is really mUes at sea 

 — quite out of sight of land in fact — and the navigation of the river 

 is both difficult and dangerous. A long, winding line of buoys 

 marks the channel out to the light-ship and pilot-brig at the Sand- 

 heads, without which no large vessel could ever reach Calcutta, for 

 the banks are of fine sand and the channel is constantly shifting. 

 The Calcutta Pilot Service very judiciously consists of Englishmen, 

 so that in the event of war no hostile fleet could by any human 

 possibility find its way up to Calcutta. The Sandheads are visible 

 only upon the captain's chart now, but in due course of time there 

 wiU be villages and rice-fields Avhere is now smooth water. 



The fourth morning from Calcutta we reached Madi-as. From 

 north to south stretched a low, sandy coast, fringed with white 

 breakers, without a sign of bay, harbor, or sheltering river-mouth, 

 or even a break in the surf. Ships anchor in the open sea, exposed 

 to the full fury of the storms, and during the cyclones which fre- 

 quently visit Madras, vessels are often swept upon the beach and 

 dashed to pieces. Those that are able usually slip theii* cables and 

 put to sea, preferring to brave the fury of the storm in deep water, 

 with plenty of sea-room. 



Until the construction of the long iron pier which extends out 

 into the sea, far beyond the surf, all communication with the shore 

 was carried on by means of the famous masulah boats common to 

 the Coromandel coast, which are built for the express purpose of 

 going through the breakers. They are very deep and wide in pro- 

 portion to their length, built of a light, tough, and pliant Ceylon 

 wood called "hallmillia" {Berrya amonilla), and the planks are 

 sewed together instead of nailed, so that when a sea strikes the side 

 of a boat the planks yield sufficiently to deaden the force of the 

 shock. But the fault of the masulah boat is that it will go to pieces 

 by the ripping of its seams just when it ought not. Scarcely a 

 week goes by but the daily papers mention how " Masulah boat No. 



