BAD STATE OF WATER-SKINS AND MUSSEKS. 103 after a dried, shrivelled-up article without an atom of water in it. How a committee of intelligent officers can ever have selected such an article beats my comprehension ! The long Egyptian leathern waterbottles ("musseks") were even worse, letting the water out in streams through the seams. The orders about water were that every man was to replenish his little wooden English bottle from the " mussek " for his private use, and on no account to touch his skin, which was to be used for public purposes, such as making tea and cooking fresh meat. However, when his wooden bottle, holding one pint, was exhausted, and the water in his mussek had evaporated, what was he to do ? We made a few men sew up their waterproof sheets into water-bags, but thorns and sharp stones had played havoc with the watertightness of most of them. The sailors were better off, for they had brought up a quantity of large indiarubber bags, specially made for the purpose. I wish the Government would have gone to the expense of providing every one with them ; it would have saved an enormous amount of pain and privation.