64 ISLES OF SUMMER. 



foaming trains, always secures a higli degree of jjleasurable ex- 

 citement. We always welcomed the showers of glistening pearls 

 that on such occasions greeted, enveloped and followed us, as a 

 holy baptism from Neptune's sacred l)ut unseen altars. 



The inscription upon a coraline monument which occupies a 

 conspicuous position iipon the sea bank opposite the western or 

 main entrance to the harbor, is strongly suggestive of the danger 

 Avhich attends the crossing of the bar on some occasions. Below 

 the names of five men is the following testimonial. 



''Who perished on the bar of Nassau harbor, February 2Gth, 

 1861, while gallantly volunteering their services in the effort to 

 save two men belonging to the pilot boat, which had been upset 

 by a heavy sea. This monument is erected ]jy the legislature of 

 the Bahamas, to commemorate their gallant conduct and self- 

 sacrificing heroism.'' 



Thus does this monumental stone serve a double purpose. It 

 honors not only the dead but the living, for the men who, in 

 this substantial manner, recognized the nol)le virtues that ani- 

 mated and inspired these obscure heroes in humble life, and thus 

 caused them to inculcate a lesson of selt-sacrifice to every passer 

 by, at the same time, all unconsciously, provided immemorial of 

 their own justice, goodness and practic.il wisdom. 



On the first day of March, 1870, aided by a good glass, we 

 witnessed a grand and extensive display of In'cakers from the 

 cupola of the Victoria Hotel. The reefs, rocks, shoals, and out- 

 lying keys were all marked and enlivened with the constant dash 

 and play of the foaming breakers. The plucky resistance of 

 Hog Island to the angry and impetuous assaults of the sea,, chal- 

 lenged our admiration. The light house, which rises from that 

 island's eastern terminus, a spindle of limestone sixt3^-eight feet 

 high, had its top obscured with the spray of high breakers that 

 threatened to sweep it into the sea. We could not but muse and 



