314 THE ATLANTIC. [cHaP. IV 
mudas would be a colony of any value except as a military sta- 
tion. In this point of view, however, it is of an importance 
perhaps second only to Malta. Judging from General Lefroy’s 
careful statistics, Bermudas can not be regarded as an essentiaily 
unhealthy place, or as one possessing a climate unfavorable to 
the life of Europeans. The death-rate among the white popu- 
lation is about twenty-two in a thousand—nearly the same as 
the general death-rate of England. The mean of the death-rate 
among the troops in Bengal for the five years up to 1869 was 
23°8 in a thousand, in Bermudas 16:1, in Malta 15°9, and in 
Canada—an exceptionally healthy station—6-9. During the last 
thirty years Bermudas has suffered from four epidemics of yel- 
low fever, and these, with one exception—that of 1856—told 
severely on the troops; but, setting aside that terrible scourge, 
it must be regarded as one of the healthiest of our less healthy 
stations. A good deal can be done, doubtless, to improve the 
sanitary condition of the town and of the military establish- 
ments; but the root of the evil is in the porous nature of the 
rock, preventing a full and purifying supply of running water, 
and rendering any thing like effective sewerage extremely dif- 
ficult. 
There is little live stock on the islands. Cattle and sheep do 
not thrive well, probably mainly owing to the want of a plenti- 
ful supply of good water. Butcher-meat is almost all imported 
from America. Horses are not very numerous, and only toler- 
ably good. There are a few mules and asses. 
The greatest extent and diversity of land is in Long Island, 
between Hamilton and the shore of Harrington Sound. The 
country is undulating and well wooded, with here and there 
extensive brackish water marshes cumbered with a luxuriant 
vegetation of palmettos, mangroves, junipers, and ferns, in- 
cluding the common bracken Pieris aquilina, Osmunda re- 
gadis and O. cinnamomea, and Acrostichum aureum, often 
seven or eight feet high (Fig. 86). It is intersected by good 
