MALTA AND SICILY. 
25 
deck by the people belonging to the wharf. 
Many of these men are a mixed race, be¬ 
tween English and Spaniards, and have re¬ 
ceived from sailors the whimsical name of 
“ Rock Scorpions .” The engine-men were 
engaged in the disagreeable duty of cleaning 
out the boilers, in which the sediment, tech¬ 
nically called “ the scruff” was nearly an 
inch in thickness, and of a stony hardness. 
While these two operations, taking in coal 
and boiler-cleaning are going on, there is no 
peace nor comfort on board a steam-vessel. 
The incessant clang of the “ scruffing-ham- 
mers” is so unpleasant that temporary deaf¬ 
ness would be a blessing; but the dust from 
the coals is a still more intolerable an¬ 
noyance. Every person and thing on board 
assumes more or less a tinge of black, and it 
appears quite impossible that the deck 
should ever be made tolerably clean again. 
