the larboard watch have the first night-watch from eight to twelve, at that hour the starboard watch and the second mate take the deck, while the larboard watch and the first mate go below until four in the morning, when they come on deck again and remain until eight.  As the larboard watch will have been on deck eight hours out of the twelve, while the starboard watch will have been up only four hours, the former have what is called a ``forenoon watch below,’’ that is, from eight A.M. till twelve M. In a man-of-war, and in some merchantmen, this alternation of watches is kept up throughout the twenty-four hours, which is called having ``watch and watch’’; but our ship, like most merchantmen, had ``all hands’’ from twelve o’clock till dark, except in very bad weather, when we were allowed ``watch and watch.’’

An explanation of the ``dog-watches’’ may, perhaps, be necessary to one who has never been at sea.  Their purpose is to shift the watches each night, so that the same watch shall not be on deck at the same hours throughout a voyage.  In order to effect this, the watch from four to eight P.M. is divided into two half-watches, one from four to six, and the other from six to eight.  By this means they divide the twenty-four hours into seven watches instead of six, and thus shift the hours every night.  As the dog-watches come during twilight, after the day’s work is done, and before the night-watch is set, they are the watches in which everybody is on deck.  The captain is up, walking on the weather side of the quarter-deck, the chief mate on the lee side, and the second mate about the weather gangway.  The steward has finished his work in the cabin, and has come up to smoke his pipe with the cook in the galley.  The crew are sitting on the windlass or lying on the forecastle, smoking, singing, or telling long yarns.  At eight o’clock eight bells are struck, the log is hove, the watch set, the wheel relieved, the galley shut up, and the watch off duty goes below.

The morning begins with the watch on deck’s ``turning to’’ at daybreak and washing down, scrubbing, and swabbing the decks.  This, together with filling the ``scuttled butt’’ with fresh water, and coiling up the rigging, usually occupies the time until seven bells (half after seven), when all hands get breakfast.  At eight the day’s work begins, and lasts until sundown, with the exception of an hour for dinner.

Before I end my explanations, it may be well to define a day’s work, and to correct a mistake prevalent among landsmen about a sailor’s life.  Nothing is more common than to hear people say, ``Are not sailors very idle at sea?  What can they find to do?’’ This is a natural mistake, and, being frequently made, is one which every sailor feels interested in having corrected.  In the first place, then, the discipline of the ship requires every man to be at work upon something when he is on deck, except at night and on Sundays.  At all other times you will never see a man, on board a well-ordered