MARK TWAIN ON THE BERMUDAS 189 



English labourers. He had a pound of meat good meat, too- while the Bermudians 

 were tugging at their teeth with tough morsels ; he had a pound and three-quarters of 

 bread more than he wanted; a pound of vegetables; tea and sugar; a glass of grog 

 per diem; tobacco-money allowed, and eight hours' labour. He was infinitely better off 

 than most sailors of the merchant service. 



THE NORTH ROCK, BERMUDA. 



St. George, the military station of the colony, commands the only entrance among 

 the islands suitable for the passage of large vessels, the narrow and intricate channel 

 which leads to its land-locked haven being defended by strong batteries. The lagoons, 

 and passages, and sea canals between the little islands make communication by water 

 as necessaiy as in Venice. Every one keeps a boat or cedar canoe. He will often 

 do his ' business on one island and have his residence on a second. Mark Twain has 

 a wonderful facility for description; and his latest articles, "Random Notes of an Idle 

 Excursion," contain a picturesque account of the Bermudas, and more particularly of 

 Hamilton, the leading port. He says that he found it a wonderfully white town, white 

 as marble snow flour. " It was/' says he, " a town compacted together upon the sides 



