The Bossier banner., 1882-08-10
Bermuda.


fngly lovely. To those who know the
Thousand Islands in the st. Lawrence,
the Bermudas will seem quite familiar,
SO strong is the resemblance. The first
beauty that attracts the eye is the won
derful color and clearness of the sea, like
beryl. emerald and sap pphire sparkling
on silvery bed. Next, you are struck
by the peculiar and beautiful appearance
given to the landscape by the snowy
whiteness of the square-roofed buildings
forts, barracks, churches and houses,
cleaning like snow among the dusky
sage green foliage of the cedar. About
800 isles and islets lay before us, only
180 of which are recognized by Govern
ment survey, and but four of any import
ance whatever. Three of these, Ireland
Island, the Main Land and ST. Georges,
are connected by bridges and magnifi-
cent causeway, about half mile long,
which cost $4,000. These connected
islands are in the form of a horseshoe
st. Georges being at one end, the dock
yard at the other and Hamilton not far
from the middle of the circumference of
the shoe. The town of St. Georges
looks pretty from the sea; but ashore it
is found to be small and crowded, and
the streets mere lanes.
The climate of Bermuda is trying, but
upon the whole good. 1t is sufficiently
bracing in winter to make warm cloth
ing necessary, but seldom cold enough
for fire. Few of the houses have CRATES
or stoves in the parlors, and on chilly
days, if kept indoors, one misses the
CHEEKY glow of the fire. The winter
season is more like the Indian Summer OF
America than anything else. When the
south wind blows, men and beast are
depressed. Horses trip, and their riders
scarcely care to keep them on their legs.
You go to bed in good spirits and awake
feeling like washed-out rag. What is
the matterp During the night the wind
has gone from north to south. You care
for nothing and nobody. If enough en-
ergy be left to complain you say with the
aesthetics: " Hollow! hollow! hollow! I
despair droopingly. am limp The
dampness is another disagreeable feature.
Boots and shoes and kid gloves, and ev-
erything that will mould, are ruined If
not constantly worn or watched. Mould
and cockrOaches are great enemies to
books, destroying their bindings very
quickly. Ants and other insects are also
trying to Europeans at certain seasons.
People in this mild and equable eli
mate live to great age. I saw several
old men between eighty and ninety
years old daily parading thestreets quite
as matter of course. / also knew of
numbers of very old people who were
unable to walk out, but were in good
health and in perfect possession Of all
their mental and most of their physical
faculties. The people in general are
healthy. 1t is a great mistake to suppose
that yellow fever has home in Ber-
muda. 1t has been there several times
but on each occasion it originated from
infection from outside
1t is probable that the good health OF
the Bermudans is largely due to their
use of rainwater for all purposes, no
other being available. In all the islands
there is neither lake nor riyulet. The
rain is collected in large, cemented
tanks, built under the houses. Every
roof has to do duty in collecting water
for man and beast; and on the hill-sides
you will see large spaces laid with stone,
cemented and edged from which the
rain water runs into large tanks below.
These are generally built for some special
purpose, as for barrack supplies or wash
ing establishments.
One is surprised to see so little land
under cultivation, cedar clothing the
hills, with an occasional fddle-wood and
calabash tree, and oleander, tamarisk,
and mangrove skirting the marsh lands
everywhere. Of the twelve thousand
acres of land in the largest islands, less
than a third are in tillage and grass, the
rest remaining in wood. marsh and
natural pasture. The fact, however,
that most of the land is rocky, or very
thinly covered with earth, accounts to a
very large extent for this apparently neg
lected state of cultivation.
The comparative absence of smaller
forms of animal life in Bermuda renders
solitary walking an insupportable lone
illness. In the sombre cedar woods, no
bright-eyed squirrel sits aloft and re-
lieves the dreariness by his chattering
and scampering; no birds. such as
there are in England, fill the air with
melody, Innumerable ants noiselessly
pursue their endless labors; and no
sound breaks the silence but an occa-
sional chirp from cricket or grasshop-
per, the hum of the cicada, and the occa-
sional whirring wings of some silent
bird. But when tired of quiet woods
and gardens, the visitor in Bermuda will
find much that is interesting ON The sea-
shores. The beaches are lovely, white
as snow, and abounding in shells, no
less than two hundred and sixty-nine
varieties being found in this little isle.
The sea-weeds are wonderfully delicate
and beautiful, and fish in endless variety
swarm in the waters.
The Government Of Bermuda consists
of Governor, Legislative Council, and
House of Assembly. The questions in
debate are seldom of great Importance,
and the law-making is singularly eau
tious and tentative. New laws are put
on trial for a certain time before being
finally approved. Its quite a gay place
in winter, chiefly from the presence Of
vessels of war. The flagship gives
dances on board; and the military Off
GERS stationed on the island get up paper
cbaSSeS and other ayf1ucpuents Still