Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1888-08-23
THE BAHAMA ISLANDS.
Charming Little Isles Where Natures
Hand Is Forever Open.


Charming Little Isles Where Natures
Hand Is Forever Open.
Here the pineapple, citron, melon,
guava, custard-apple, yam, bread
'ruit, sweet potatoes, mammee, star
apple, zopota, mango, pomegranate,
banana, orange, lemon, cocoanut and
a hundred other vegetables and fruits,
spring unmasked from a sur
passing and prodigal productiveness.
The forests TEEN with the COCO
tree, hundred feet to its
strange pinnate leaves, the ceiba or
silk cotton tree, the black mangove,
almond, mahogany, ebony, lignum-
vitae, lance and the royal palm, while
the swinging cactus, oleanders as tall
as our trees and Towering every month
Of the year, the glowing coral vine, the
tuberose, the Cherokee rose and roses
Of every hue and size, the alligator
pear, the night blooming cereus and
myriad shrubs, ferns and flowers de-
light the eye and gladden. the sense
with perennial color and odor, and that
forever without the bidding of wish or
touch of labor. The luxuriance of land
is also equaled by the prodigality of
sea life and form, as varied, beautiful
and wonderful. No shores are so en-
chanting, no waters SO winsom and no
depths of ocean hold such mazes of
mystery and delight.
The fish alone are remarkable in
variety. Among them are the black
fish, the porpoise, which seems to tum-
BILE about in all waters; the shark, the
deadly foe of the sailor; the dolphin,
in endless pursuit of the delicate flying
fish, which scuds through the air be-
ause it is chased and not because it
enjoys it, which same dolphin is never
cooked aboard vessel unless a silver
half-dollar is put in the pot, for if the
half-dollar blackens, then the dolphin
is full of poison from having sucked
copper from ship-bottoms; the whip
ray, like the founder and with tail
like coachman's whip, sometimes ten
feet long; the Jewish, which is to these
waters as the halibut of our Northeast
coast; the yellow-tailed snapper, gi-
gantic turtles, the catfish, the groupa,
striped snapper, bonito, Spanish mack
erel, angel fish, pork fish, hound fish
and sucking fish. Then there is that
dread mystery to seamen, the Portu-
guese man-of-war, that strange forma-
ton of maritime life like a mass OF
jelly with its ventral fins extending in
every direction riding the heaviest
seas like a bird and which sea folks
say is deadly poison to the touch; the
star-fsh, sea-urchin, the humming-
bird fish, the phosphorescent jelly-fish
or glow-worm of the ocean, and other
wonderful and startling colored mites
of these waters; besides tiny caves and
grottoes of white coral, where the
sponges like dark forests are forever
swaying with the endless motion of the
tides, and where nestle and hide sea-
fans and rainbow-fish, conches contain
ing priceless pearls, and such delicate
elfs of the ocean as we of the land can
only imagine through fairy lore or the
witchery of dreams.
For the traveller, the scientist, the
invalid, the dreamer, the outcast, OF
the outlaw, these islands are the ultima
Thule. Life is sustained with scarcely
an effort. 1t is a region of prodigal
provision. of thyme and balm, of life
in endless lullaby. All this may be
the vision of toilers. It's realization
to any people begets squalor. The
population of the entire islands, whose
capital and Governor-General are al
Nassau, New Providence, is monde
script with English, Spanish ant
negro commingling, and comprise
such people as might be likened Il
lazzaroni unconsciously possessing
Heaven; and in coming to know an(
think of it all, it is one of those in
tellectual evidences that almost com
peis tho rejection of any sort of futur,
state in which activity and progression
are not possible. There is actually
sense of rest in these latitudes so in
tense as to be oppressiye.-Edgar L
Wdkeman, IN Denrer Republican.