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Food:There are no shellfish, such as oysters, cockles or mussels, known
to exist in the vicinity, or even to be obtainable by purchase in the neighbourhood,
but the boys have been seen to eat biscuits and other foodstuffs which
they had taken out of the river water; neither the names of the boys doing
this were known, nor could they be identified with the boys who were ill.
No eatables of any kind have been allowed to be sent to the boys from
their friends for the past six months.
Bedding.—The boys sleep in hammocks, wear flannel Nightshirts, and are
covered with blankets, no sheets being provided.
These blankets are stated to be sent to a steam laundry to be washed about
once in every four months, or three times a year.
Each boy occupies at night the same hammock, which is always slung from
the same hooks, he uses the same blankets, which are marked with his name
or number, and I am informed that an officer makes an occasional tour of
inspection in order to ascertain that the boys are using their own blankets,
and sleeping in their own hammocks, but it has been known that a boy
occasionally has stolen blankets from another boy.
The hammocks are slung at 8 p.m., and unslung at 6 a.m., when the whole
of the bedding is stowed away after being tied up, with the exception of that
of a few of the boys who are subject to nocturnal incontinence of urine.
These are slung up in the open air to dry every morning.