, 1888-07-08

RNNnAN "a
her and her absolute ferocious sway, I'M
mindful of his humility, said he had been
many a time tempted to run her poor
slave of n husband off Double Shot Head
keys as a stowaway. There are men who
will honor our captain for that generous
sentiment.
Our voyage from Double-Shot Head
Keys was a sweet dream of tropical sea
life, to the famous Hole-in the Wall. At
the latter point vessels leave the deep sea
OF the Horse Latitudes flor the voyage
across the banks" when bound for Gulf
Of Mexico ports. Few have any idea of
the great Bahama banks. Their forma-
ton is wholly of white corals They are
from fifty to one hundred miles in width,
and fully six hundred miles in length,
their outer edge circling from the North
west Providence channel, .at Great Isaac
island, opposite Florida, away to the south
east, terminating in the Columbus bank,
at a point about due north from the cen
ter of Cuba. The westerly edge of the
banks rise precipitatelv u OF the gulf
stream here called the Gulf of Florida, in
water whose depth is from 300 TO 600
tathoms; and the eastern edge merges
into dangerous shoals, keys, sunken rocks,
and the Bahama islands themselves.
Crossing the banks is regarded by sea
captains as the most desirable thing to do,
providing a vessel does not draw too much
water. The depth of water upon the
banks for three hundreds of miles is only
from two and one-half to three fathoms;
and in the chart-course from Hole in-the-
Wall, 1t nowhere varies two fathoms in
the northeast and southwest channel across
the banks, the length of which channel,
or course, as sailed, being about 100 miles.
No such wonderful sight is ever elsewhere
witnessed. Here is a sea bed 600 miles
long, as level as a Dakota prairie, as white
as snow, every square foot Of which can
be seen from u ships deckl-while the
water, opalescent and with a marvellous
and delicate tinge of green, reveals count
less masses of sponge and innumerable
forms of sea life of transcendent interest
and beauty.
Nearly a week was passed in reaching
Nassau; a week of dreadful idleness, of
weird experiences among my swarthy
companions and their stranger acquaint-
ances on key and in island cove of starry
nights, and balmy winds lulling the senses
tenderlY. After such an experience one
grows to resent the touch Of land beneath
the feet, even though all that greets the
~ 10 ihohieN \ NDhAiS allh luA hlil
All this is at Nassau, and everywhere be-.
hind, along the flower girdled island
drives. 1t is simply Cuba, diminutively,
under better rule. There are a great
hotel, a touch of English aristocracy, a
horde of invalids, an ancient flavor in
architecture, and all forms and customs
growing out of human activities, or rather
lnactlvities; white men and women who
under the influence of the narcotic tropi-
cal surroundings live and move as in a
dream, and 10000 simple, guileless, half
naked black folk. so sodden in inertia that
mental activity implied in dreams seems
impossible. But that is all, save the end
less contemplation OF Gods unused, I'M
appreciated prodigality of unsought pro-
vision for human necessities.
In these islands natures hand is for
ever open. Here the pineapple, citron,
melon, guava, custard-apple, yam, bread
fruit, sweet potato, nance, star apple,
zopota, mango, pomegranate, banana,
orange, lemon, cOcoanut and a hundred
other vegetables and fruits, spring I'M
asked from a surprising and prodigal pro-
ductveness. The forests TEEN with the
cocoanut tree. a hundred feetto its strange
pinnate leaves, the ceiba or silk. cotton
tree, the black mangrove, almond, ma
hogony, ignum- 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 tubeIose, the Cherokee rose, and roses
of every hue and size, the alligator pear,
the night-blooming cereus, and a myriad
of shrubs, ferns and flowers delight 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 equalled by
the p~rodigality OF sea life and form, as
varied, beautiful and wonderful. No
shores are so enchanting, no waters so
winsome, 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 por-
poise, which seems to tumble 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 because it is chased and not be-
cause it enjoys it, which same dolphin Is
never cooked aboard a vessel unless a sill
yer 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 whipray, like the
founder and with a tail like a coarhman's
whip, sometimes ten feet long; the Jew
fish, which is to these waters as the hall
but OF our northeast coast; the yellow
tailed snapper, gigantic turtles, the cat
fish, the groups, striped snapper, bonito,
Spanish mackerel, angel fish, pork fish,
hound fish and sucking fish. Then there
is that dread mystery to seamen, the Por-
tuguese man-ot-war, that strange forma-
ton of maratime life like a mass of Jelly
with its ventral fins extending ia every
direction riding the heaviest seas like a
bird, and which sea folk say is a deadly
poison to the touch; the starfish, sea
urchins, the humming bird fish, the phos-
phorescent Jelly fish or the glow worm of
the ocean, and other wonderful and start
lingly eolored mites of these waters; be-
sides tiny caves and grottoes Of white
coral, where the sponges like dark forests
are forever swaying with the endless mo
ton Of the tides, and where nestle and
hide sea fans, the rainbow fish, conches
containing priceless pearls, and such deli
cate 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 inva-
lid, the dreamer, the outcast or tho out