394 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



passed the winter in Bermuda, and upon his return inquired of me if 

 I did not think it would be a good place for a marine laboratory. The 

 more I inquired into the condition of living in the islands, and the 

 marine organisms in the sea about the islands, the more I became con- 

 vinced of the practicability of the place for a biological laboratory. 



At the risk of saying much that is already familiar to many of you, 

 I will give an account of some of the things which seem to me of 

 interest in this connection. 



From fifty to sixty hours' steaming brings one from New York to 

 Bermuda. It is worthy of note that the distance of the islands from 

 New York or Boston is only about two thirds that of the Dry Tortugas 

 or the Bahamas. The climate and the conditions of life in the Ber- 

 mudas are safe and agreeable at all seasons of the year. Though the 

 humidity is considerable, the temperature in summer rises to only 85° 

 or 86° Fahrenheit; in winter it seldom gets below about 50°, and 

 never to the freezing point. To the zoologist familiar with the animals 

 of our north Atlantic coast and the water they live in, the waters that 

 wash the shores of these islands and the brilliantly colored animals 

 that inhabit them are a source of surprise and delight. 



Leaving New York a little before noon on Saturday, the islands 

 are usually sighted about mid-day on Monday, and landing is made in 

 Hamilton a few hours later. If one has pictured to himself low-lying 

 coral islands fringed with palm trees, he will be disappointed, and will 

 be surprised to find that the land rises in many places to a considerable 

 height— even to two hundred and fifty feet or more — and on approach- 

 ing nearer to see, instead of palms, the dark green of the cedars that 

 cover many of the hills. In passing from the deep waters of the 

 Atlantic to the shallower depths near land, the dark blue of the ocean 

 is replaced by livelier tints, in which greens predominate, and when 

 the conditions of sun and sky are favorable, the variety of colors ex- 

 hibited is truly wonderful. Even the far-famed Bay of Naples does 

 not afford a more brilliant display of colors than is sometimes seen in 

 the waters around the Bermudas. 



In contrast with these fascinating, kaleidoscopic effects of the sea, 

 the land presents either the dull gray appearance so common on the 

 granite shores of New England, or the dark green of the cedars, which 

 also reproduce the effect of the New England evergreens. If one 

 could ignore the colors of the sea, he might easily imagine, as he steams 

 along the northern shores of the Bermudas, that he was skirting some 

 part of the Maine coast. One thing, however, would impress him as 

 strange — the brilliant white specks and patches which here and there 

 dot the hillsides or are clustered into larger or smaller groups — the 

 limestone dwellings of the Bermndians. These with their white roofs, 

 brilliant in the sunlight, are in marked contrast to anything seen on 



