The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-07-31
HERMupA's
Neither Soil nor Water, Animals no1
Birds, Only Coral.

y "a IVA ]
Birds, Only Coral.
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.
In no other part of the world, lthlnk'
did nature show such supreme niggard'
liness as here. She gave the Bermudas
neither soil nor water neither animal nor
bird, neither fruit, vegetables nor
flower. She simply conferred the most
delightful weather under the canopy
and then stood off and said: "Sucn
weather as that is a bountiful OUTFIT, II
YOU don't get another thing" So j. has
proved, To the prize weather all ,ther
things have been added by Visitors
The only wild animals known mere
are the rat and the mouse, brought by
vessels the casual and oleaginous whale,
and the bat, tina: 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 catbird has put IN an APP
p~earance, and so has that even greater
nuisance. the English sparrow, the
pirate of the winged world. Two Span.
ish birds, the "chick of the village and
the pretty ground dove, move quietly
about. And that is all. Not a native
bird among them.
have said that nature gave Bermuda
no soil. Ignatius Donnelly thinks that
these islands and the Azores are the re-
mains of Pleto's tabled continent-the
last lot remaining above the sea after
the great cataclvsm of one hundred
thousand years ago buried the rest of
the continent with its splendid civiliza-
tons forever. In that case, ] should
suppose there would be some real soil,
some rocks, some drift, some sand, some
clay, 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 a pipe, or sand enough for a sand
glass, or a stone big or little nearer than
the coast of Georgia. There is moth
ing here but ground coral reefs, car
bonnate of lime, digested and deposited
by that m~ucilaginous 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 minute
after q sharp shower M can go Out
walking and find neither mud nor mos
ture anywhere. On some lowlands
this comminuted coral, with the mixture
of elements it has taken up, is not a:
hard as elsewhere; and here it is oc
~casionally cultivated by the admix'
ture with the soil of a large quantity
[; of fertilizers from America. 1t car
! absorb unlimited careoes Of these slim
!, ulants without having its life mucl
stirred by them. Tickle this coral rec
e with a hoe ever so vigorously, j
a never laughs with q harvest; and afte
r you have poured into it oceans Of pou
!, drette, and dosed it with loan an,
. bound poultices Of warm ground upo'
its stomach, 1t only smiles a faint an
e gastly smile. But under these circum
5 stances, potatoes. onions, tomatoes an
Il lily bulbs are planted, and if they ca
+ clasp r%ootlets around anything softe
e than a cast iron stove lid, they grow
Some things grow in a warm climat
h without much encouragement. [ sa'
p this week a tamarind tree as large as
good sized New England elm, that ha
been torn up bya hurricane long ag'
l. and stood on its very top, its roots poin'
V ing toward the sky. The branches thu
), stuck into the ground put forth roo
i and gave the wreck a new anchorag
y while the upthrown roots reverted an
;, set forth new limbs, and the dense ma!
c. of foliage now shades the ground All
IS invites the still fruitful giant to fors
g. its disaster.
There is no fresh water on the islar
!, except what comes direct from II
clouds. The sky is the cistern of Be
X muda. The houses are all built of Il
% coral that is quarried in beautiful viii
cubes from the ground anywher
seeming fit for the sculptor's chise
II the every house is rooted with sla
roof of the same and furnished wi
Is abundant tanks. In these the rain
l. gathered; and the tanks are so We
clean, and the roof is so very white al
the air is so very free from dust til
the water is the purest in the world
. cold and pellucid as if drawn from t
choicest mountain. spring. Inever ST
y such delicious water anywhere. N
e. ture knew what she was about VIII
er she omitted the Bermudian springs.
L