wers, and close in front of the raised poop or
steersman's deck, which is nearly on a level with the gunwale.

The whole process of landing, from the moment of leaving the ship till
you feel yourself safe on the crown of the beach is as disagreeable as
can be; and I can only say for myself that every time I crossed the
surf it rose in my respect. At the eighth or tenth transit I began
really to feel uncomfortable; at the twentieth I felt considerable
apprehension of being well ducked; and at about the thirtieth time of
crossing, I almost fancied there was but little chance of escaping a
watery grave, with sharks for sextons, and the wild surf for a dirge!
The truth is that at each successive time of passing this formidable
barrier of surf we become better and better acquainted with the
dangers and possibilities of accidents.

However, as all persons intending to go ashore at Madras must pass
through the surf, they step with what courage they can muster into
their boat alongside the ship, anchored in the roads a couple of miles
off, in consequence of the water being too shallow for large vessels.
The boat then shoves off, and rows to the "back of the surf," where it
is usual to let go a grapnel, or to lie on the oars till the masullah
boat comes out. The back of the surf is that part of the roadstead
lying immediately beyond the place where the first indication is given
of the tendency in the swell to rise into a wave; and no boat not
expressly fitted for the purpose ever goes nearer to the shore, but
lies off till the "bar-boat" makes her way through the surf, and lays
herself alongside the ship's boat. A scrambling kind of boarding
operation now takes place, to the last degree inconvenient to ladies
and other shore-going persons not accustomed to climbing. As the
gunwale of the masullah boat rises three or four feet above the water,
the step is a long and troublesome one to make, even by those who are
not encumbered with petticoats--those sad impediments to
locomotion--devised by the men, as I heard a Chinaman remark,
expressly to check the rambling propensities of the softer sex, always
too prone, he alleged, to yield to wandering impulses without such
encumbrances! I know to my cost, from many a broken shin, that even
gentlemen bred afloat may contrive to slip in removing from one boat
to the other, especially if the breeze be fresh, and there be what
mariners call a "bubble of a sea." In a little while, however, al