er, and yet
cannot help feeling restless to return to the salt sea and take long
voyages. There are hundreds of English sailors on the American lakes
that have either been in our navy or merchant service, and they live
so well, in comparison with their deep-sea experience, that it is a
great pity that fresh water cannot employ them all the year, as the
sea could. Of course, they earn enough to keep them idle during the
winter, but we all know that saving sailors are almost as scarce as
white crows.

The real fresh-water sailor, who has never been on the sea, and
probably never saw it, is different to the deep-sea man in many ways.
For instance, he walks straight and does not roll, which is owing to
the different action of inland waters. His voice is gentle and soft,
not rough and hoarse like a deep-sea sailor's. But, for all that,
when it comes to money matters he is quite as extravagant as the man
of long voyages, and is quite as easily fleeced by land-sharks, in
spite of his greater knowledge of life on shore. And every lake town
is as well supplied with land-sharks as a seaport of its size. But,
fortunately for these lake sailors, they are nearly all beggars,
owing to having no work in the winter when the lakes are frozen and
navigation has stopped. This being the case, most of them think very
little of begging a house, and if they are robbed or spend their
money foolishly and have to wait for a ship, they are not likely to
suffer hunger.

One great advantage on the lakes is that when a man ships he has
no particular need of top boots, oilskins, and many other things
needed by the man of the deep sea. Indeed, the latter has to even
supply himself with a knife, fork, and spoon. There is no law that
a man must have a bag of clothes, for there is no need of them. He
is allowed to ship as he stands, no matter whether he is clad like
a sailor or a farmer, or is in rags like an unsuccessful beggar.
As far as appearances are concerned, a great number of these
fresh-water sailors end the season as they began it. Some 