272 
Excursion io Port Arthur. 
modation for their respective numbers. Each of these 
messes selects, in daily rotation, two delegates, who 
receive the victuals, and afterwards apportion each man 
his share. That this may be fairly done, the mess, 
drawn up in double lines before the table, surveys the 
partition. They then sit down, and consume all the 
food that is set before them; it being one of the im¬ 
perative regulations that nothing shall be laid by,—a 
measure to insure the impossibility of husbanding, and 
thereby obtaining a provision in case of absconding. So 
rigidly is this necessary precaution enforced, that eating 
out of season becomes a punishable offence, and no food 
(fish or kangaroo, for example) caught in the bush is on 
any pretext permitted to be consumed there. The meal 
afforded the convict is not only ample but nutritious, 
consisting of excellent soup, good wheaten bread (I tasted 
both), and beef, mutton, or pork—such a meal, indeed, 
as would rejoice the heart and gladden the eyes of many 
an honest, hard-working, hungry Briton. Breakfast and 
supper consist of bread and a pint of skilly—a drink of 
water thickened by boiling a small portion of flour 
therein. The clothing of the convicts is of woollen 
cloth, dyed yellow (or partly black, partly yellow): they 
are furnished with two complete suits, shirts, and boots, 
a year. Their quarters are clean, comfortable, well- 
ventilated, and frequently white-washed. They have a 
sufficiency of bedding, which during the day is rolled 
up, each man sleeping in a separate berth. In the first 
ward we entered, Jones, the Chartist watchmaker, was 
acting overseer to the mess, which comprised some dozen 
refractory lads : Jones said grace for them before meat. 
He appeared to be circumspect and orderly, although 
upon his first arrival he wore the aspect of a sottish, dis¬ 
sipated mechanic, and was disposed to talk rather freely 
and unwarrantably. A hint, however, sufficed : he has 
