very prevalent in the summer-thank God it was not so!-twenty was the utmost of those attacked, and out of these not more than half were fatal. At the General Hospital were several bad cases, whose lives were saved, humanly speaking, by the attention they received from the nuns, who watched by them day and night.

A great blessing arrived about this period, in the shape of ice; it was sent out by government. The ship that brought it was called the "City of Montreal," her captain was a Scotchman; he purchased a cargo of ice in North America at a venture, which proved a fortunate one, for three days after coming into Liverpool the whole was bought by government, and he was instantly despatched with it to the East. Part was left at Scutari, part at Koulali, the rest went to Balaclava. The captain reckoned he had made £500 by the enterprise. Thankful indeed were we that he had made it.

REMARKABLE CASES OF CHOLERA. 115

There was an ice-house at the General Hospital into which the ice was put, and we used to send the Greeks to fetch it down to the Barrack. Unfortunately the ice-house was not a good one, and the ice melted faster than it would otherwise have done; so we were obliged to use it as fast as possible, but it lasted the exact time the extreme heat did. I cannot think what we should have done without it. Certainly we could not have given "cooling drinks" any longer, for the lemonade used to be quite warm till iced; and it was such a comfort to the fever patients to lay on their burning brows, and most useful in cholera; also in obstinate cases of diarrhoea and dysentery it checked vomiting and allayed the irritation of the stomach.

There were two cases of cholera in the Barrack Hospital which were remarkable; they were in different wards, one in the surgical the other in the dysentery; their

116

SMOKING ALLOWED.

symptoms were exactly similar, consisting chiefly in extreme depression; they resisted all nourishment and wept almost incessantly, and no one could discover that they had any particular cause for grief. Both these cases were fatal.

Smoking was ordered in the wards when cholera was about; this was rather amusing to the men as they had been before strictly forbidden to smoke in the wards, and it had been a great deprivation to those not able to walk into the barrack-yard, for unless a man were in a dying state he had strength enough for his beloved pipe; even while it was forbidden they would smoke whenever they could do so without being seen.

Another misery brought by the heat was the increase of vermin. Mosquitos began to pay us a visit; they never abounded so much as we expected, but they were quite bad enough, and their bite was very painful and disfiguring. We had mosquito-net from the

very

LITTLE TORMENTORS.

117

stores, which we cut into squares and threw it over the faces of those who were ill. Fleas abounded and were very tormenting; we used a powder which can be bought at Stampa's shop in Galata, and to all Eastern travellers I should recommend it; for though it does not destroy these enemies, it stupifies them, and one has the satisfaction of seeing the sheets spread with them fast asleep, while otherwise the wretches are so very rapid in their movements that it is almost a hopeless undertaking to wage war against them. From their facility in making their escape, some one named them the "light cavalry," while other horrors which we occasionally had the misfortune to encounter in the wards, who were not so light of foot, were called "heavy dragoons."

The ice ship lay off Koulali for several days. The captain used to send his boat in the evening to know if we would like to have

118

VOYAGE IN THE ICE-SHIP.

a row, and as it held a great many we were glad to take the nurses out in it. When the "City of Montreal" was ready to proceed to Balaclava it was proposed that two or three ladies should go on board of her as far as the entrance to the Black Sea, and return in the steamer which would tug her up to that point. She was to start at six A.M.

We went on board one lovely morning; the steamer began to tug the vessel, but could not succeed. The current was so strong that she was powerless, and after trying for two hours in vain she was obliged to give it up. The steamers used for tugging are the small ones which ply upon the Bosphorus and are hired by the Admiralty. The "City of Montreal" was tugged up next day by the "Ottawar," a fine steamship.

We did not attempt to see the Black Sea a second time, having been so disappointed the first day, so we contented ourselves