We had the whole passenger list for company, but their room would have been preferable, for there was no light, there were no windows, no ventilation.

It was close and hot.

We were much crowded.

It was the Black Hole of Calcutta on a small scale.

Presently a smoke rose about our feet--a smoke that smelled of all the dead things of earth, of all the putrefaction and corruption imaginable.
We were there five minutes, and when we got out it was hard to tell which of us carried the vilest fragrance.
These miserable outcasts called that "fumigating" us, and the term was a tame one indeed.