crossed the river to the eastern side, and encamped opposite to West point, upon what was called Nelson's point. It was now very hot weather, being the latter part of June; here, for a considerable length of time, our rations, when we got any, consisted of bread and salt shad; this fish, as salt as fire, and dry bread, without any kind of vegetables, was hard fare in such extreme hot weather as it was then. We were compelled to eat it as it was; if we attempted to soak it in a brook that ran close by the camp, we were quite sure to lose it; there being a great abundance of Otters and Minks in and about the water, four legged and two legged, (but much the largest number of the latter,) so that they would be quite sure to carry off the fish, let us do what we would to prevent it.
Soon after we were encamped here I was sent off with a working party to work upon some fortifications on Constitution Island, a mile or two higher up the river. We had our allowance of salt shad and bread, and were to remain there a week; our duty was, chiefly, wheeling dirt upon a stone building intended for a magazine. We had to wheel to the top of the wall, which was about twenty feet high, upon a way two planks wide, and in the passage we had to cross a chasm in the rocks thirty or forty feet wide and perhaps as many deep. None of us happened to take a dive into it, but it often made my head swim when crossing it at such a rate, and I thought it would not be strange if some of us should feel the bottom before we left there. From the planks, which we wheeled upon, to the bottom of the hole, could not be less than sixty feet; if any one had fallen into it he would have received his discharge from the army without further trouble. We continued at this business two or three days, when the weather became so hot that it was difficult to breathe; the rays of the sun reflected from the bare rocks (all that part of the island where we were, being mostly so) was stifling in the extreme, and to complete a bad business, there was not a drop of water on the island, except the brackish water of the river, and that was as warm as milk and almost as nauseous as the waters of the Nile after it had felt the effects of Moses' rod. There was no shade, and we had no tents; we could get no refreshment but in a place where were
