JACK SOLDIERING.—" The sailors on our right, with that universal
ta- lent they possess of turning their hands to anything, threw up a battery front of their guns, and escaped with scarcely a casualty; while the artil- lerymen, less inclined to use the spade and pick-axe, had many men badly wounded. The conduct of the sailors was most amusing ; a shot at a randy with a carbine, with but the slightest chance of success, was hailed with 55 great delight as a school-boy's first shot at a crow; and to be without one for any length of time was a real hardship. Their fun and good-temper on all occasions made it quite delightful to serve near them while to men who had been many years in India, there was a freshness in their ways, whio,h brought the dear old country snore to our hearts than anything else poosthl could have done. They were described by the natives who first saw them, as little men four feet high, and four feet in the beam i always 1augbin.8 and dragging about their own guns.' Although becoming slightly aluPYI'" bious, the idiosyncracies of their own profession were kept up to an among extent. They paraded, (I beg pardon, mustered,) not in front of the camp, like the regiments, or, like the artillery, near their guns but in the 597 cers' lines astern ; which they persisted was their qusirter-deck. boatswain piped all hands to grog. But, as I feel I am getting out of.mX depth, I must leave the honest hearts of the Shannon to a more naubmi pen than mine."—Bourchier's Eight Months' Campaign.
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