can testify to its excellence.  The food of the sailors was carefully inspected before being served.  When the soup was ready, the cook took a bowl of it, with a slice of bread and a clean spoon, and delivered the whole to the boatswain.  From the boatswain it went to the officer of the deck, and from him to the chief officer, who delivered it to the captain.  The captain carefully examined and tasted the soup.  If unobjectionable, the bowl was returned to the galley and the dinner served at once.

A sailor’s ration in the Russian navy is more than sufficient for an ordinary appetite and digestion.  The grog ration is allowed, and the boatswain’s call to liquid refreshment is longer and shriller than for any other duty.  At the grog tub the sailor stands with uncovered head while performing the ceremonial abhorred of Good Templars.  As of old in our navy, grog is stopped as a punishment.  The drink ration can be entirely commuted and the food ration one half, but not more.  Many sailors on the Variag practiced total abstinence at sea, and as the grog had been purchased in Japan at very high cost, the commutation money was considerable.  Commutation is regulated according to the price of the articles where the ship was last supplied.

I was told that the sailor’s pay, including ordinary allowances, is about a hundred roubles a year.  The sum is not munificent, but probably the Muscovite mariner is no more economical than the American one.  In his liberty on shore he will get as drunk as the oft quoted ‘boiled owl.’ En passant I protest against the comparison, as it is a slander upon the owl.

At Petropavlovsk there was an amusing fraternization between the crews of the Variag and the Wright.  The American sailors were scattered among the Russians in the proportion of one to six.  Neither understood a word of the other’s language, and the mouth and eye were obliged to perform the duties of the ear.  The flowing bowl was the manual of conversation between the Russians and their new friends.  The Americans attempted to drink against fearful odds, and the result was unfortunate.  They returned sadly intoxicated and were unfit for social or nautical duties until the next day.

When the Variag was at New York in 1863, many of her sailors were entrapped by bounty-brokers.  When sailors were missing after liberty on shore, a search through the proper channels revealed them converted into American soldiers, much against their will.  Usually they were found at New York, but occasionally a man reached the front before he was rescued.  Some returned to the ship dressed as zouaves, others as artillerists; some in the yellow of cavalry, and so on through our various uniforms.  Of course they were greatly jeered by their comrades.