o drag. This anchoring was very
comfortable. Besides allowing us to get much more rest than when on
other cruising-grounds, we were able to catch enormous quantities
of fish, mostly salmon, of which there were no less than fourteen
varieties. So plentiful were these splendid fish that we got quite
critical in our appreciation of them, very soon finding that one kind,
known as the "nerker," was far better flavoured than any of the others.
But as the daintiest food palls the quickest, it was not long before we
got tired of salmon, and wished most heartily for beef.

Much fun has been made of the discontent of sailors. With food which is
considered a luxury ashore, and wonder expressed that if, as we assert,
the ordinary dietary of the seaman be so bad, he should be so ready to
rebel when fed with delicacies. But in justice to the sailor, it ought
to be remembered that the daintiest food may be rendered disgusting by
bad cookery, such as is the rule on board merchant ships. "God sends
meat, but the devil sends cooks" is a proverb which originated on board
ship, and no one who has ever served any time in a ship's forecastle
would deny that it is abundantly justified. Besides which, even good
food well cooked of one kind only, served many times in succession,
becomes very trying, only the plainest foods, such as bread, rice,
potatoes, etc., retaining their command of the appetite continually.

I remember once, when upon the Coromandel coast in a big Greenock ship,
we found fowls very cheap. At Bimliapatam the captain bought two or
three hundred, which, as we had no coops, were turned loose on deck. We
had also at the same time prowling about the decks three goats, twenty
pigs, and two big dogs.

Consequently the state of the ship was filthy, nor could all our efforts
keep her clean. This farmyard condition of things was permitted to
continue for about a week, when the officers got so tired of it, and
the captain so annoyed at the frequent loss of fowls by their flying
overboard, that the edict went forth to feed the foremast hands on
poultry till further orders. Great was our delight at the news. Fowl for
dinner represented to our imagination almost the apex of high living,
only indulged in by such pampered children of fortune as the officers of
ships or well-to-do people ashore.

When dinner-time arrived, we boys made haste to the galley with watering
mouths, joyfully anticipating that rare delight of the sailor--a good