\ 
300 THE ATLANTIC. [CHAP. Iv. 
long time, they would remain so during the greater part of 
the season. The oleander is not now so popular as it was, and 
although it is still planted in large numbers in shifting sand, 
it is suspected that high thickets and hedges of it near dwell- 
ings are not healthy, and latterly they have been cleared away 
in many places. 
June 9th.—A party started early in the morning in the gal- 
ley and the steam pinnace for the Walsingham Caves. We 
called at Mount Langton for the governor, who had arranged 
to join us, and then went on to “The Flats,” the entrance to 
Harrington Sound. The strait, which is the only communica- 
tion between this beautiful land-locked sheet of water and the 
sea, is very narrow, and spanned by a low bridge. The rising 
tide rushes in through it with great force, and when we arrived 
the ebbing tide was rushing out with the velocity of a mill- 
race. We sent on the steam pinnace with the photographer 
and some of our party by way of Castle Harbor to Walsing- 
ham, to try to photograph the interior of one of the caves 
with the magnesium light; and we warped the galley against 
the rapids, and she was soon in the still, clear water of the 
Sound. Harrington Sound is a most peculiar basin, and cer- 
tainly it is extremely beautiful. It is nearly rectangular, a 
mile wide by about two miles long in the direction of the 
axis of the island. To the south a low narrow band separates 
it from the sea, and on the other three sides the land rises in 
irregular, richly wooded ridges, forming nearly the highest 
ground in Bermudas. The sheet of water is thus completely 
land -locked, and as it is of considerable depth, if there were 
any good access to it, it would make one of the finest harbors 
conceivable. It was at one time proposed to cut a canal, open- 
ing a communication to the southward, and to make it the 
Government harbor; but the project was abandoned in favor 
of the present arrangement at Ireland Island. 
We had taken along with us one of the native fishermen, 
