New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-07-08
BER1fUDA's PEcULARLTHs.

y no
BER1kUDA's PECULARITIEs.
Hsither Soil nor water, Animals nor
Birds, Only Coral.
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.
In no other part of the world, I think,
did nature show such supreme niggard
iness 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: "Such
weather as that is bountiful outfit. if
you don't get another thing" So it has
proved. To the prize weather all other
things have been added by visitors.
The only wild animals 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 catbird has put in an APP
pearance, and so has that even greater
nuisance. the English sparrow, the
pirate of the winged world. Two Span
ish birds, the 'schick Of the village" and
the pretty ground dove, move quietly
about. And that is all. Not native
bird among them.
have said that nature gave Bermuda
no soil. lgnatius Donnelly thinks that
these islands and the Azores are the re-
mains of Plato's tabled continent
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-
lions 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 pipe, or sand enough for sand
glass, or 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 mucilaginous and shapeless
creature called the coral "insect. I"
This island is as white as so much chalk,
and about as barren. Water soaks
into it like sponge, and five minutes
after sharp shower one can go out
walking and find neither mud nor mols-
ture anywhere. On some lowlands
this comminuted coral, with the mixture
of elements it has taken up, is not as
hard as elsewhere; and here it is oc-
casionally cultivated by the admix-
ture with the soil of large quantity
of fertilizers from America. It can
absorb unlimited carg oes of these slim
ulants without having its life much
stirred by them. Tickle this coral reef
with a hoe ever SO vigorously, it
never laughs with a harvest; and after
you have poured into it oceans of pou-
drette, and dosed it with loan and
bound poultices Of warm ground upon
its stomach, it only smiles faint and
easily smile. But under these circum-
stances, potatoes. onions, tomatoes and
lily bulbs are planted, and if they can
clasp rootlets around anything softer
than cast iron stove lid, they grow.
Some things grow in warm climate
without much encouragement I saw
this week tamarind tree as large as a
good sized New England elm, that had
been torn up by hurricane long ago,
and stood on its very top, its roots point
ing toward the sky. The branches that
stuck into the ground put forth roots
and gave the wreck a 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 to 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 white
cubes from the ground anywhere,
seeming fit for the sculptor's chisel !;
the every house is rooted with slant
roof of the same and furnished with
abundant tanks. In these the rain is
gathered; and the tanks are so very
clean, and the roof is so very white and
the air is so very free from dust that
the water is the purest in the world
cold and pellucid as if drawn from the
choicest mountain spring. Inever saw
such delicious water anywhere. Ma
ture knew what she was about when
she omitted the Bermudian springs.