l professional offices are at an end,
he walks to the quarter-deck, and reports to the officer of the watch
that one of his patients has just expired. At whatever hour of the day
or night this occurs, the captain is immediately made acquainted with
the circumstance.

"Next day, generally about eleven o'clock, the bell on which the
half-hours are struck, is tolled for the funeral, and all who choose
to be present, assemble on the gangways, booms, and round the mainmast,
while the forepart of the quarter-deck is occupied by the officers. In
some ships--and it ought perhaps to be so in all--it is made imperative
on the officers and crew to attend the ceremony. If such attendance be
a proper mark of respect to a professional brother--as it surely is--it
ought to be enforced, and not left to caprice. There may, indeed, be
times of great fatigue, when it would harass men and officers,
needlessly, to oblige them to come on deck for every funeral, and upon
such occasions the watch on deck may be sufficient. Or, when some dire
disease gets into a ship, and is cutting down her crew by its daily and
nightly, or it maybe hourly ravages, and when, two or three times in a
watch, the ceremony must be repeated, those only, whose turn it is to be
on deck, need be assembled. In such fearful times, the funeral is
generally made to follow close upon the death.

"While the people are repairing to the quarter-deck, in obedience to
the summons of the bell, the grating on which the body is placed, being
lifted from the main-deck by the messmates of the man who has died, is
made to rest across the lee-gangway. The stanchions for the man-ropes
of the side are unshipped, and an opening made at the after-end of the
hammock netting, sufficiently large to allow a free passage. The body is
still covered by the flag already mentioned, with the feet projecting
a little over the gunwale, while the messmates of the deceased arrange
themselves on each side. A rope, which is kept out of sight in these
arrangements, is then made fast to the grating, for a purpose which will
be seen presently. When all is ready, the chaplain, if there be one on
board, or, if not, the captain, or any of the officers he may direct
to officiate, appears on the quarter-deck and commences the beautiful
service, which, though but too familiar to most ears, I have observed,
never fails to rivet the attention even of the rudest and least
reflecting. Of course, the bell has ceased t