Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-05-07

bill, stuck out the chimney of a house
The house to which 1t was attached was
buried underneath by hurricane of sand
which blew GOWN the beach one morning,
twenty-five years ago. In house nifty
rods oil / found an old darkey who was
here at the time ard Witnessed the catas-
tTophe. 1t was large stone house
residence Of planter. For some weeks
the wind had blown from one direction,
and came up the hill and piled against the
house: but one day q vast sir0cco OF sand
filled the air with 8 whirl and
blocked up the doors in an hour. The fam
ilv and attendant slaves got out OF a win
dow and escaped, and when the storm sub
sided only the top was visible, as 1t IS now,
even the roof being covered. pushed my
! way through the oleaudeFs and orange
bushes now in blossom over the house, and
| cooked down lhe old chimney. The room
below was dark and mysterious. 1t is a
wonder that the Bermudians do not lower
| a small boy by a rome and let HIM see what
| he can find, and it would even pay them
| to dig q tunnel in through the sand TO the
| front door or q window, and open the ruin
rs one OF the show places OF the island
OVER THE CORAL GARDENS.
In a little steam tug we went ont to the
coral reefs "a crescent Of shoals facing
the northern shore, ten miles eli. In their
vicinity the waters Of the bay put on mot
ley hues, ranging through the Units OF every
color-yellOw, peacock blue and apple
green, and here ard there q well defined
belt of red and purple. Over one Of these
last We anchored, the reef was only four or
FIVE feet under tho boat. and it was very
rich in Colors. The wafer vas Tippied by
the wind, but tc Offset this we used " wa
ter-giass" \ water glass is square bucket
with plate-giass bottom, and by lowering
il Just below the surface it breaks the waves
and renders ali below almost as clear as if
seen through the air. The very first glance
through the Water-gIass excited wonder
which was constantly increased. 1t was
the revelation Of = new world, as if one
could get q bird's-cye view Of the strange
vegetation of the planet Mars. The whole
bottom was g field Of coral dead and liv-
iuE-the dead, white and ragged, the iv
ing trembling ana waving above their lig-
neous homes like many-coioTed jellIes.
We could see the great masses of brain
coral, some whitened sepulchres, some a
vivid green. showing that the shell was
still inhabited near by was 4 grove Of the
purple gOTgonial and ali sorts OF
FLurrERIyG AND rEArHrRY THINGS.
There were yellow sponges, standing up
ana DeCkOnlNg IKE human IiSuus, ana
buiches Of seaweed Of ali shades Of olive
and bright green and red. What surprises
us most is that almost the whole bottom is
coralline. right feet under the bow is
spread mimic garden. The growing
cGrals look so much like Towering plants
that it is not remarkable that HeauInus and
all tho old naturalists classified the coral as
vegetable growth. There IS q broken
hedge Of fan coral Of q bright brick red,
and growing under its side, az il in its
shadow, a mass Of brilliant things that
look like thistles. narigolds, carnations,
asters, daisies and ga2auias; they have
evidently been flung over the hedge in
clearing the garden, but they have persist
emily taken root again and gone on flower
ing. The branching coral grows like
tree, putting forth branches, and each
branch is covered with buds and each bud
is young polyp. The base is dead and
forms q part Of this reef but each Of the
living branches (green or yellow IS tipped
with its sea-anemonc which goes on drink
ing of the sea and depositing lime in the
slleletoB OF which it Is at once the mother
and the child In many places the fringes
Of tiuttering tentacles, reaching upward,
are SO conspicuous that they quite mask
the coral and hide ii from view.