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enlist them for service at sea, forwarding them to Bombay, whence they are shipped at the Company's own shipping office, four new entries—rating, we presume, as coal trimmers—being alloted to each ship (of the largest class) when signing on a new crew. A few months' sea service sees them blossom into full-fledged firemen; and so the merry game goes on. The supply of new or raw material being practically unlimited for the employment of men from a special district only is not by any means the case now, except, perhaps, as regards the Royal Indian Marine, who remain faithful to and patronise only their preserves on the Western seaboard.
At Calcutta, large numbers of men from Sylhet, in Assam, chiefly engine-room ratings, are always being shipped, and in our opinion from experience are wanting in much that is desirable before they would compare favourably as a class with those from the western side of the Indian peninsula, and they simply cannot "hold a candle" to the Punjabi, who, by the way, has even ousted the Seedie boy from favouritism. Two circumstances have occurred during the last few years that have had a direct stimulating effect on the employment of Lascars. The first is the outbreak of the plague, the second is the exploitation of the Bengal coalfields. Under the plague regulations, the compulsory examination of crews before sailing has rendered necessary a reserve, of hands to fall back upon, when the weeding out process is applied by the port sanitary authorities, before the necessary Bill of Health and Port Clearance are granted. Many first voyagers—from goodness knows where—have found their first footing from the opportunities thus afforded, and once started off for a sea life they generally remain, and appear to like it too; for when they realise how well off they are in material comfort, pay, and privileges found, judged from the standpoint of their previous lot as labourers of the ordinary Indian type, the new environments are to most of them really magnificent and palatial! The second circumstance is much more general, owing to the extra labour required at Calcutta in handling the coal for shipment and the employment of particular vessels as steam colliers in its exportation from the Hooghly, and is distinctly and closely related to the first, inasmuch as all the colliers employed were manned with Lascar crews. Indeed, it would have been well nigh impossible to have carried on the work with the ordinary type of European crew, first because of the very long period many of the vessels have been engaged, and, 'secondly, the disastrous and deadly effects the frequent visits to the Kidderpore coal dock have, always had on the European portion of the crews. This, however, is a detail of
