traight over the
bows of the ship was the Bosphorus, with its wooded banks dotted with
villas and palaces. To the right was Scutari, with the great barrack
standing on the edge of a cliff some fifty feet in height. Little did
those who looked at the great square pile of building dream that ere
many months it would be crowded from top to bottom with British sick
and wounded, and that even its ample corridors would prove wholly
insufficient to contain them. The water itself was thronged with
shipping of all nations: men-of-war, merchant steamers crowded with
stores, troop-ships thronged with red-coats; great barges, laden to
the water's edge, slowly made their way between the ships and the
shore. The boats of the shipping, filled with soldiers, rowed in the
same direction. Men-of-war boats, with their regular, steady swing,
went hither and thither, while among all crossed and re-crossed from
Constantinople to Scutari, the light caicques with their one or two
white-shirted rowers. No boats in the world are more elegant in
appearance, none except those built specially for racing can vie with
them in speed. The passenger sits comfortably on a cushion in the
bottom of the boat, and smokes the long pipe which the boatman, as a
matter of course, fills and hands to him as he takes his seat, while
the boatmen themselves, generally Albanians, and singularly handsome
and athletic men, lay themselves down to their work with a vigor and a
heartiness which would astound the boatmen of an English
watering-place.

A scene so varied, so beautiful, and so busy could not be equalled
elsewhere.

CHAPTER V.

A BRUSH WITH THE ENEMY

Two days later Jack obtained leave to go on shore. He hesitated for a
moment whether to choose the right or left bank. The plateau of
Scutari was covered with the tents of the British army, which were
daily being added to, as scarce an hour passed without a transport
coming in laden with troops. After a little hesitation, however, Jack
determined to land at Constantinople. The camps at Scutari would
differ but little from those at Gallipoli, while in the Turkish
capital were innumerable wonders to be investigated. Hailing a caicque
which was passing, he took his seat with young Coveney, who had also
got leave ashore, and accepted with dignity the offer of a long pipe.
This, however, by no means answered his expectations; the mouthpiece
being formed of a large piece of amber of a bulbous shape, and to