THE -WHALE-BOATS FOR THE NILE. 203 after a very arduous and difficult journey with much labour and at a slow rate, so that they did not reach Dal till the 1 3th of November. These boats, known as the whale-boats, had been constructed with considerable rapidity by various boat-builders on the Thames, the Tyne, and the Clyde, and were designed to be conveyed in the transport and store vessels as quickly as they were finished. Some of the steamers and launches were, of course, sent in sections to be put together on arriving on the Nile, but the whale-boats were sent entire, and trials were made not only of their complete suitability for the purpose for which they were intended, but of their capacity for receiving the stores, arms, rations, and various appliances which each boat was to carry besides the men, who were to form a double bank of rowers. The prices of the boats varied from "75 to 90 each, the higher price being demanded at Glasgow at the yards where there would be some difficulty in completing the contract and delivering the boats in London in 27 days. One of the boats, specially built at Portsmouth, was the first to be experimented upon, and will serve to illustrate the general dimensions and arrangements.

Roughly speaking, the boats were to be 32 ft. in length by 7 ft. beam, with a depth of 2 ft. 8 in. each, to carry sails with a 12-ft. hoist, and to be equal to the carriage of a weight of 6500 lb. The experimental boat was 30 ft. long, with a beam of 6 It. 6 in.

and a depth of 2 ft. 6 in., and was built of fir, painted white inside, with twelve oars and two long sails, her weight being about 10 cwt. It was roomy and buoyant, and with provision for awnings and other conveniences, and was fully loaded for the sake of testingits powers. A working party of seamen stowed on board 2-;+ tons of commissariat stores, including biscuits, preserved meat.

vegetables, lime-juice, and ammunition, it being intended to allow 850 rounds of ammunition for each of the twelve men to be carried. The provisions were estimated to last for a hundred days, the period required for going up and down the Nile. I he stores were packed in oblong and square boxes, and though some difficulty was experienced in conveniently placing them in til vessel with twelve men also on board, her mean draught \