Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/67

 supply; and though the sleeping berths are very circumscribed, one becomes reconciled to them if the occupants are well suited to one another. It appears to me that, generally speaking, the sleeping berths have not received that consideration to which they are entitled; that they are deficient in a few necessary fittings-up that would contribute much to the comfort of the passengers, such as fixed seats, hooks for clothes, shelves, drawers, and epecially a strong hook in the deck over the bed to swing in by. How ladies contrive to get into the upper berths and down again, unless upon the shoulders of their cabin-mates, is to me a mystery. If ten shillings a-head were expended in such conveniences, it would be well bestowed. Complaints are occasionally made respecting the table; but it must be remembered that there is a continued series of eating and drinking from morning to night; one party sitting down as another rises up; each party having its own meal separately cooked, and all of them being cooked in the same caboose of 8 feet by 6. The wonder is that such dinners can be supplied so good as they generally are, considering all the difficulties to be encountered. Passengers sometimes forget this!