ed her thoroughly from deck to keelson, but he found nothing at
all. However, he was determined not to give up his quest, and had part
of her ceiling examined minutely, and was then surprised to note that
some fresh nails had apparently been driven. He therefore caused the
ceiling to be ripped off, when he discovered that a large variety of
contraband goods had been neatly stowed between the ship's timbers.

It was only a few months later in that same year that another Revenue
officer boarded a Dutch schuyt which was bound from Amsterdam to
London. Her cargo consisted of 500 bundles of bulrushes, but on making
his examination these innocent articles were found to conceal between
the rushes forty-five boxes of glass in illegal packages, and also
some other prohibited goods which had been shipped from the United
Kingdom for exportation and were intended to have been again
clandestinely relanded.

The reader will remember our mentioning the name of Captain M'Culloch
just now in connection with the Coast Blockade. Writing on the 2nd of
April, 1817, from on board H.M.S. _Ganymede_ lying in the Downs, this
gallant officer stated that, although it was known that the smugglers
had constructed places ashore for the concealment of contraband goods
under the Sand Hills near to No. 1 and No. 2 batteries at Deal, yet
these hiding-places were so ingeniously formed that they had baffled
the most rigid search. However, his plan of landing crews from his
Majesty's ships to guard this district (in the manner previously
described) had already begun to show good results. For two midshipmen,
named respectively Peate and Newton, commanding the shore parties in
that neighbourhood, had succeeded in locating five of those places of
concealment.

"This discovery," continued the despatch, "I am assured will be a most
severe blow to the smugglers, as they were enabled to remove their
cargoes into them in a few minutes, and hitherto no person besides
themselves could form any idea of the manner in which their
store-holes were built. They are generally 4 feet deep, of a square
form and built of a 2-inch plank, with the scuttle in the top, into
which a trough filled with shingle is fitted instead of a cover to
prevent their being found out by pricking; and I understand they were
built above two years ago. I have ordered them to be destroyed, and
parties are employed in searching for such concealments along the
other parts of the beach." Thus, than