hides.  Two or three songs would be tried, one after the other, with no effect,—­ not an inch could be got upon the tackles; when a new song, struck up, seemed to hit the humor of the moment, and drove the tackles ``two blocks’’ at once. ``Heave round hearty!’’ ``Captain gone ashore!’’ ``Dandy ship and a dandy crew,’’ and the like, might do for common pulls, but on an emergency, when we wanted a heavy, ``raise-the-dead pull,’’ which should start the beams of the ship, there was nothing like ``Time for us to go!’’ ``Round the corner,’’ ``Tally high ho! you know,’’ or ``Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!’’

This was the most lively part of our work.  A little boating and beach work in the morning; then twenty or thirty men down in a close hold, where we were obliged to sit down and slide about, passing hides, and rowsing about the great steeves, tackles, and dogs, singing out at the falls, and seeing the ship filling up every day.  The work was as hard as it could well be.  There was not a moment’s cessation from Monday morning till Saturday night, when we were generally beaten out, and glad to have a full night’s rest, a wash and shift of clothes, and a quiet Sunday.  During all this time—­ which would have startled Dr. Graham—­ we lived upon almost nothing but fresh beef; fried beefsteaks, three times a day,—­ morning, noon, and night.  At morning and night we had a quart of tea to each man, and an allowance of about a pound of hard bread a day; but our chief article of food was beef.  A mess, consisting of six men, had a large wooden kid piled up with beefsteaks, cut thick, and fried in fat, with the grease poured over them.  Round this we sat, attacking it with our jack-knives and teeth, and with the appetite of young lions, and sent back an empty kid to the galley.  This was done three times a day.  How many pounds each man ate in a day I will not attempt to compute.  A whole bullock (we ate liver and all) lasted us but four days.  Such devouring of flesh, I will venture to say, is not often seen.  What one man ate in a day, over a hearty man’s allowance, would make an English peasant’s heart leap into his mouth.  Indeed, during all the time we were upon the coast, our principal food was fresh beef, and every man had perfect health; but this was a time of especial devouring, and what we should have done without meat I cannot tell.  Once or twice, when our bullocks failed, and we were obliged to make a meal upon dry bread and water, it seemed like feeding upon shavings.  Light and dry, feeling unsatisfied, and, at the same time, full, we were glad to see four quarters of a bullock, just killed, swinging from the fore-top.  Whatever theories may be started by sedentary men, certainly no men could have gone through more hard work and exposure for sixteen months in more perfect health, and without ailings and failings, than our ship’s crew, let them have lived upon Hygeia’s own baking and dressing.