One of the deck games popular on long voyages is a form of quoits, played with rings and chalked spaces, or, in some cases, on a spike driven into the deck. A traveller(15) gives an amusing account of a cricket club formed on the vessel in which he was a passenger. Fancy playing cricket at sea! He says:—“The _Lord Warden_ cricket‐ground is on the main deck, and, owing to the somewhat limited space at the disposal of the ten members, single‐wicket matches are the invariable rule. The stumps, which are fixed in a frame so as to remain steady on the deck, are about two feet in height, and of course bails are provided, but never used. Of bats the club boasts not a few, of varied construction. Of these the majority are fashioned out of a thick deal plank, and soon go to pieces; but one of elm, which was christened off Cape de Verde, survived many weeks of hard usage, and was more precious to the club than the most expensive of Cobbett’s productions. It was fully intended by a member of the Marylebone Club to obtain for this tough little piece of elm a final resting‐place in the Pavilion at Lord’s, but unfortunately the ‘leviathan hitter,’ in attempting a huge drive, let it slip out of his hands, and it is lost to us for ever.” The boatswain furnished spun‐yarn balls at sixpence each, but these seldom had a long life, four or five being frequently hit overboard in the course of an afternoon’s play; nearly 300 were exhausted on the voyage. “The wicket,” continues the narrator, “is pitched just in front of the weather poop‐ladder, the bowling‐crease being thirteen yards further forward, by the side of the deck‐house. Behind the bowler stands an out‐field, while mid‐on or mid‐off, according to which tack the ship is on, has his back to the midshipmen’s berth, and has also occasionally to climb over the boom‐board above it, and search for a lost ball among a chaos of boats and spare spars.... Run‐getting on board ship is a matter of difficulty, the ball having the supremacy over the bat, which is exactly reversed on shore. A cricketer who thinks but little of the side‐ hill at Lord’s would find himself thoroughly non‐plussed by the incline of a ship’s deck in a stiff breeze. A good eye and hard straight driving effected much, but a steady defence and the scientific ‘placing’ of the ball under the winch often succeeded equally well, especially on a wet wicket. The highest score of the season was eighteen, which included two hits on to the forecastle, feats of very rare occurrence.” The games were highly popular, and were watched by appreciative assemblages of the passengers. On the same vessel a glee club was organised, and an evening in Christmas week was devoted to theatricals, by the “Shooting Stars of the Southern Seas.” Dancing is common enough on board, and, of course, is often pursued under difficulties; a sudden lurch of the ship may throw a number of couples off their feet or tumble them in a chaotic heap.