The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-06-30


stating that his sister Sarah had placed
the medal in care of the Bank of San
Jose, and had expressed to him the de-
IRE that this medal and other relies OF
heir father should be in some safer
sszseodT.-N Y Ecenino Post.
RERMUOA'S PECULIARITIES.
Neither Soil Nor Water. Animals MOI
Birds. Only Coral.
In no other part of the world, / think,
did nature show such supreme niggard-
illness as here. She gave the Bermudas
neither soil nor water, neither animal
nor bird, neither fruit, vegetable nor
flower. She simply conferred the most
delightful weather under the canopy,
and then stood of and said: ''Such
weather as that is bountiful outfit, il
you don't get another thing" So il
has proved. To the prize weather al
other things have been added by WIS.,
itors. The only wild animal known
here are the rat and the mouse, brought
by vessels; the casual and oleaginous
whale, and the bat, that has blown
across the Atlantic by accident There
is no game whatever, and never has
been. Of birds. the splendid cardinal
of the tropics is here. The blue robin
of New England is here, piping as
bravely as ever. The cat-bird has put
in an appearance, and so has that even
greater nuisance, the English sparrow,
the pirate of the winged world. Two
Spanish birds. the ''chick of the vii
lage" and the pretty ground dove,
move quietly about. And that is al.
Not native bird among them.
have said that nature gave Bermuda
no soil. Ignatius Donneily thinks that
these islands and the Azores are the re-
mains of Plato's tabled continent-.he
last jot remaining above the sea after
the great cataclysm of one hundred
thousand years ago buried the rest of
the continent with its splendid civiliza-
tons forever. in that case, / shoulN
suppose there would be some real soil,
some rocks, some drift, some sand, some
CLAW. some alluvium. some vegetable
mold. There is very Little of the last
and not a bit of any of the others on
these islands. There is not clay enough
for pipe, or sand enough for sand
glass, or stone big or little nearer than
the coast of Georgia There is nothing
here but ground coral reefs, carbonate
Of lime, digested and deposited by that
mucilaginOus and shapeless creature
called the coral insect" This island
is as white as so much chalk, and about
as barren. Water soaks into it like a
sponge, and five minutes after sharp
shower one can 90 out walking and find
neither mud nor moisture anywhere.
On some lowlands this comminuted
coral, with the mixture OF elements it
has taken up, is not as hard as else
where: and here it is occasionally culti-
waited by the admixture with the soil OF
large quantity of fertilizers from Amer
lea. 1t can absorb unlimited cargoeS
of these stimulants without having its
life much stirred by them. Tickle
this coral reef with hoe ever so Wig
orously, it never laughs with a
harvest; and after you have poured
into it oceans of poudrette and dosed
it with loan and bound poultices
of warm ground upon its stomach. 1t
only smiles faint and CHASTITY smile.
But, under these circumstances, pota-
toes, onions, tomatoes and lily bulbs
are planted, and, if they can clasp roo:-
lets around anything softer than cast
iron stove lid, they grow. Some things
grow in a warm climate without much
encouragement. L saw this week a
tamarind tree as large as a good sized
| New England elm, that had been torn
up bv hurricane long ago, and stood
on its very top, its roots pointing
toward the sky. The branches that
stuck into the grou.-d put forth roots
and gave the wreck new anchorage,
while the upthrown roots reverted and
set forth new limbs, and the dense
mass of foliage now shades the ground.
and invites the still fruitful giant 10
forget its disaster.
There is no fresh water on the island
except what comes direct from the
clouds. The sky is the cistern of Der
muda. The houses are all built OF the
coral that is quarried in beautiful whit,
cubes from the ground anywhere
seeming fit for the sculptors chisel
then every house is rooted with Sian
roof of the same and furnished witt
abundant tanks. La these the rain i
gathered: and the tanks are 80 YER,
clean, and the roof is so very white AM
the air so very free from dust that tn
water is the purest in the world-col'
and pellucid as if drawn from tn
choicest mountain spring. never say
such delicious water anywhere. Na,ur
knew what she was about when sh
omitted the Burmudian springs.
Cincinnati Commercial Gdzette.
xuk.,, Liz OiI &c Ont IF Fashion