The Water was nearly as bad as the Biscuit. It was turgid--it was smelly--it was animally. I remember so well, in the Russian War (1854–5), being sent with the Watering Party to the Island of Nargen to get fresh water, as we were running short of it in this old Sailing Line of Battleship I was in (there was no Distilling Apparatus in those days). My youthful astonishment was how on earth the Lieutenant in charge of the Watering Party discovered the Water. There wasn’t a lake and there wasn’t a stream, but he went and dug a hole and there was the water! However, it may be that he carried out the same delightful plan as my delicious old Admiral in China. This Admiral’s survey of the China Seas is one of the most celebrated on record. He told me himself that this is how he did it. He used to anchor in some convenient place every few miles right up the Coast of China. He had a Chinese Interpreter on board. He sent this man to every Fishing Village and offered a dollar for every rock and shoal. No rock or shoal has ever been discovered since my beloved Admiral finished his survey. Perhaps the Lieutenant of the Watering Party gave Roubles! I must mention here an instance of the Simple Genius of the Chinese. A sunken ship, that had defied all European efforts to raise her, was bought by a Chinaman for a mere song. He went and hired all the Chinamen from an adjacent Sponge Fishery and bought up several Bamboo Plantations where the bamboos were growing like grass. The way they catch sponges is this--The Chinaman has no diving dress--he holds his nose--a leaden weight attached to his feet takes him down to where the sponges are--he picks the sponges--evades the weight--and rises. They pull up the weight with a bit of string afterwards. The Chinese genius I speak of sent the men down with bamboos, and they stuck them into the sunk ship, and soon “up she came”; and the Chinaman said: “Ship hab Bamboo-- No hab Water!” It’s a pity there’s no bamboo dodge for Sunk Reputations! An uncle of mine had a snuff box made out of the Salt Beef, and it was french-polished! That was his beef--and ours was nearly as hard. There were many brutalities when I first entered the Navy--now mercifully no more. For instance, the day I joined as a little boy I saw eight men flogged--and I fainted at the sight.