ng sunshine and glittering waves and the deep blue
sky bending down in unbroken circle around us. The rebel cruisers were
then in the midst of their destructive work and it was natural, as we
caught sight of a distant vessel, to speculate whether it was a
friendly or a hostile craft. When we were in the latitude of
Charleston, a steamer appeared in the far distance, then a flash, a
puff of smoke and a loud report notified us that it was sending us its
compliments. It approached nearer, a boat put out and officers from
the gunboat Connecticut came on board, examined our papers and soon
allowed us to proceed. The weather rapidly grew warmer and our winter
clothing proved very uncomfortable. The steamer's supply of water was
exhausted and we had to depend on sea-water, distilled by the vessel's
boilers, for all uses. The allowance of an officer was, I think, a
pint a day. Warm and insipid, its only use, as I remember, was for our
morning ablutions, which were more a matter of form than of substance.
In rounding the coast of Florida we bumped one evening on a sand bar
or coral reef. I was very unceremoniously tumbled over, and the game
of back-gammon, in which I was engaged with a brother officer, was of
course, ended at once. Rushing on deck we found ourselves clear of the
obstruction and again on our way. But the breakers, in plain sight,
gave us assurance of the peril we had so narrowly escaped.

In the early morning of February second we crossed the bar and noted
well that line stretching far to the right and left of us, drawn with
almost mathematical exactness, which marked the demarcation between
the clear waters of the Gulf and the turbid waters of the Mississippi.
In going up the river the buckets were constantly dropped into the
muddy stream, and their contents, when allowed to stand for a few
minutes, would soon furnish an abundance of that luxury we all craved
so much,--clear water, cooled by the ice and snows of the far north.
Reaching the inhabited portions of the river, we saw the planters busy
with their spring work, and though the air was chilled with the icy
breath of northern climes, the orange trees in blossom and the green
shrubbery on the shores, gave indication of the semi-tropical climate
we had reached. Arriving at New Orleans in due season, our senior
captain reported for orders. I must not pause to speak of the strange
scenes which greeted our eyes in this, the most cosmopolitan city of
our land. A