The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-31
Bermuda Is "a Paradise.
Bermuda letter to the New Yor

Bermuda letter to the New York
Times.
Nowhere on earth are there more per-
feet days and nights than here. in the
lovely land of the lily and the rose.
For weeks past the atmosphere has
held an ambrosial meflowness, with the
thermometer ranging from 65 to 70 de-
grees all day. Almost every night is as
perfect as the enthusiasts pen or the
artists pencil could paint IL.
And this is the land of the onion. To
the inexperienced whose sensitive and
delicate nostrils have never met the
powerful odor of a thousand boxes of
onions, with mere bars across the top
TO afford air for this article of COM
merce, resting upon the wharf. waiting
for the next steamer for New York, the
smell of 5000 boxes or crates filled with
onions on board one steamer cannot be
well and properly described. and 1t can
only be appreciated by the passenger,
whose entire wardrobe must bear the
clinging perfume after leaving the ship
for weeks to come and mark him for
an onion dealer. Yet there are few
things earthly as delicious as the Ber-
muda onion. This is the land of the
lily, but the onion is upon its coat of
arms.
But IL is not alone of the onion that
Bermudans are proud. Upon one of this
cluster of islands is the largest floating
dry dock in the world. 1t was built for
the purpose of the navy of Great Bril-
tain. 1t was built in England and
brought here from over the sea. This
largest floating dry dock in the world
is on Ireland island. and was landed
here in July, 1869, after a passage of 35
days from the Downs. The dock basin
is 81 feet below low-water mark. 1900
900 cubic feet of sand and coral rock
dredged up by the steam dredge. 1t is
secured i'm its position by three iron
Orders 112 feet long. fitted so as to rise
and fall with the dock. The dimensions
of this immense structure are: Length
over ALL 3S1 feet; breadth over all. 1893
feet; breadth, inside wall, S4 feet; depth
over all, rs feet; total weight, S.340 tons.
The dock, when full, contains $1,000 tons
of water.
The means of communication between
some OF the larger islands is by cause
ways and bridges, and these. as well as
some of the remarkably level roads,
hewn out of the coral rock, sometimes
to a depth of 200 feet, were made by
convicts. But there are hundreds of
smaller isles only large enough TO con-
tain one residence and land sufficient to
support one family of lily or onion. or.
perhaps, potato raisers. But there are
others besides farmers, who live now
as they have lived. and their fathers
and grandfathers before them, on these
small isles of the sea. as is evidenced by
the antiquity of the structures and the
furniture therein.
For two years past a powerful steam
dredge has been employed in the har-
Dor OF Hamilton I'm digging and blasting
out two channels for the better naviga-
ton of steamers and large sailing YES
sells approaching this port. The work
is completed; the powerful dredger has
departed for the coast OF Mexico to en-
gage In work there. There is now a
clear channel out from Hamilton dock,
and another to enable vessels to reach
the great dock at Ireland island. But
the work is still incomplete, as will be
found out i'm the future. for the islands
are only approachable now by vessels
drawing no more than 20 feet Of water
at high tide. Besides this fact. the In
adequacy Of the work may be appre-
ciated from the fact that at low tide
only one steamer may ride at anchor
in the approach TO the channel. the
work being incomplete there, and a sec
ond steamer of 20 feet draught must
stand on and of the shore. waiting for
the rise of the tide. AS for the harbor
of ST Georges. the oldest city in Ber-
muda, the least said about II in rela-
ton to it's safety for vessels of large
draught the better.