uch canoes on the principles first applied in that above
mentioned; and to me it was even more gratifying to find in the Admiralty
Barge, the Rob Roy canoe itself, with sails set and the flag of the Royal
Canoe Club flying, and with maps of the paddling voyages through Europe.

Very speedily I launched my old travelling companion, and had a paddle up
the river by moonlight, and it was surprising to find that scarcely any
water leaked in, though the other boats which were hung up in the barge
were found to be a good deal injured by the strong draught of wind
rushing through the arch of the bridge, and then under the open sides of
the shed, covered only by a roof. But then those other boats were new,
and perhaps some were not built of such well-seasoned wood {119} as
Messrs. Searle employ beyond all other boat-builders I know; whereas the
weatherbeaten Rob Roy had been too long inured to wet and dry, sun and
wind, heat and cold, to be affected with the rheumatism and ague which
shook even the man-of-war's boats on the barge.

The sketch (see next page), represents a man watering a horse, and who
swum it out to my boat to get a paper, and then carefully placed the gift
in a dry place ashore until he should be able to use it when he was
dressed again.

My life at the Exhibition soon settled into a somewhat regular one.
Seeing, seeing, seeing all day, and then returning to my quiet bed on the
river at night, with a 'Times' newspaper to study, and books and letters.
It was a variety to launch the dingey, and scull along the quays and
visit the other yachts, all of them most hospitable to the Rob Roy. I
ventured even to go alongside the Turkish vessel, the _Dahabeeh_, from
the Nile, full of specimen "fellahs," all hidden by a curtain of grey
calico, except to those who had paid their franc for general entrance.
We never observed any visitor actually on board this vessel; indeed, it
required a bold inquirer to face those solemn Africans' gaze, as they sat
cross-legged on deck, and ate their soup from a universal bowl, or calmly
inspired from their chibouques, and blew out a formal and composed puff
of the bluest tobacco-smoke. It did, indeed, soon forcibly recall the
feelings of Egyptian travel to see these men;--the red fiery sunsets, the
palm-trees, and crocodiles, and obelisks, and Indian corn, and, over all,
the thrumming, not unmusical sound of the _tarabookrah_--earthen
drum--with the wailing melodies in a minor key o