My equanimity was not restored by seeing the back of one poor wretch a mass of blood from attacks of vermin and retaliatory scratching.
A shirt was handed me--which I could not help but wonder how many other men had worn; and with a couple of blankets under my arm I trudged off to the sleeping apartment.

This was a long, narrow room, traversed by two low iron rails.

Between these rails were stretched, not hammocks, but pieces of canvas, six feet long and less than two feet wide.

These were the beds, and they were six inches apart and about eight inches above the floor.

The chief difficulty was that the head was somewhat higher than the feet, which caused the body constantly to slip down.