nded from one side of the hull to the other, giving a breadth of 7
feet 2 inches, its length being about 2 feet 2 inches, and the height
3 feet 6 inches. It will thus be readily imagined that a good quantity
of spirits, wine, and plums from France could easily therein be
contained and brought ashore when opportunity presented itself.

At another port a vessel was actually discovered to have false bows.
One might wonder how it was that the officer ever found this out, but
he was smart enough to measure the deck on the port side, after which
he measured the ship below. He found a difference of over a foot, and
so he undertook a thorough search of the ship. He first proceeded to
investigate the forepeak, but he was unable to discover any entrance.
He therefore went to the hold, examined the bulkhead, and observed
that the nails of the cleats on the starboard side had been drawn. He
proceeded to force off the cleats, whereupon one of the boards of the
bulkhead fell down, and a quantity of East India silk handkerchiefs
came tumbling out. Needless to say, this proved a serious matter for
the vessel's skipper.

Sometimes too, cases used to come over from France containing carton
boxes of artificial flowers. These boxes, it was found, were fitted
with false bottoms affording a space of not more than a quarter of an
inch between the real bottom and the false. But into this space was
squeezed either a silk gauze dress or some parcels "very nicely
stitched in," containing dressed ostrich feathers. The flowers were
usually stitched down to the bottom of the boxes to prevent damage, so
it was difficult to detect that there was any false bottom at all.
However, after this practice had been in vogue for some time it was
discovered by the Revenue officers and the matter made generally known
among the officials at all the ports, so that they could be on the
alert for such ingenuity.

Sometimes when a Revenue officer was on her station she would come
across a sailing craft, which would be found to have quite a
considerable number of spirits in small casks together with a number
of other prohibited goods. If the master of such a craft were told by
the cruiser's officer that they would have to be seized as they were
evidently about to be smuggled, the master would reply that they were
nothing of the kind, but that whilst they were on the fishing grounds
working their nets they happened to bring these casks up from the
sinkers and warp w