drawn off from the third. The
charcoal and sand were renewed twice a week.]

It was only when all these buildings were actually completed, in the
year 1860, that the establishment assumed the character of a prison; and
the convicts themselves were not slow to realize the fact, for it became
a proverb amongst them that "an open campong, or village, had become a
closed cage."

In 1857 there were altogether under the control of the convict
authorities no fewer than 2,139 transported felons from India and about
fifty from Hongkong. About one half of this number were localised in the
main prison, the other half being employed upon the country roads, the
quarries, and brickfields. These were of the third class; the second
class men were detailed for duties as Government messengers, punkah
pullers at the hospitals and Government offices, and others of this
class also as "lookout men" at the flag-staff stations, helpers to light
keepers, crews for the Government boats conveying firewood to the jail
and brick kilns, and others digging and conveying coral for lime
burning.

In the main prison the wards were built of a uniform length of 230 feet,
breadth 60 feet, and height of walls 20 feet. The wards were not ceiled,
but open to the tiles, with a ridge ventilator along the whole roof.
Beneath the side windows, which were barred, ground ventilation was
provided, in order to ensure a current of air throughout the whole
building. The floors were laid in concrete, and cemented over with
"soorkee," or brick dust and cement mixed, and graded to the sides. Each
ward was arranged to contain four hundred convicts. All the convicts
were in association, separate confinement being restricted to the
punishment cells. In each ward were platform sleeping benches. They were
raised three feet at the head, and two feet nine inches at the foot,
above the floor, and were coated with coal tar except on the actual
sleeping place.

Lime-wash was used for the inner roofing timbers and tiles, and
generally for the walls, except for the three feet of dado, which was
coated with coal tar. Parts of this dado were daily re-coated with hot
fresh tar, as we found coal tar to be a valuable deodorizer. To each
ward there were four night urinals, detached from the main building and
provided with double spring doors. In each urinal there were utensils
coated with coal tar, and at every corner iron crates filled with
wood-charcoal to absorb noxious vapour