THE BORDEIN had had several holes made in it at one time and another ; very few inches of it possessed proper shape, and there was scarcely a particle of paint upon it. The hull, too, had been much knocked about, and was patched in dozens of places where bullets had made holes. The paddle-boxes were scarred and THE CAPTAIN OF THE "BORDEIS" IN 1898.

battered, no two floats were of the same size, length, or thickness, and the iron frames were bent into fantastic shapes ; what surprised me most of all was that the Burden made any headway at all. Compared with all this ruin most parts of the engines were in first-class condition, and though the cranks knocked, and the shaft turned in badly worn bearings, and the piston-rods wanted packing, and the whole framework lifted at each revolution, they drove the steamer against the current at the rate of a mile and a VOL, I. 257 s