184 ISLES OF StJMMER. 



more frequently from the south and the -weather was, as in the 

 States, exceptionally hot, and for that reason Nassau was much 

 less attractive. 



The Royal Victoria Hotel is provided with tanks for the stor- 

 ing of rain-water, which are said to have a capacity of 300,000 

 gallons. The water is exclusively used for drinking and culi- 

 nary purposes, and it always appeared to be of most excellent 

 quality. Ice, from the state of Maine, is procured under a con- 

 tract which the government made for the supply of the city, of 

 which there was always an abundance at the hotel. The water 

 of the hotel is therefore most excellent and unexceptional 

 provided proper care and vigilance are exercised in cleaning 

 the tanks, and guarding and keeping them from impurities. 

 During the latter part of the hotel season of 1878-9, after a 

 long protracted drouth, dysenteric complaints were alarm- 

 ingly prevalent at the Victoria Hotel, and, although physicians 

 were numbered among its guests, no one seemed able to dis- 

 cover their cause. There was nothing disclosed in the taste, 

 color or smell of the drinking Avater which indicated that it had 

 anything to do with the trouble. The more we pondered upon 

 the cause, the more we were puzzled. Before leaving Nassau we 

 read the '^ Brief Auto-biography" of the former rector of one of 

 the churches in Nassau, the late Rev. Wm. Strachan, D. D., who, 

 in 1822, established a church and was for sometime its rector 

 upon one of the Turks Islands. The latter part of the following 

 extract from the little book (p. 58) excited in us some incredulity: 



"I found no wells in the island, and learned that the only 

 water to be had, either for drinking or cooking purposes, was 

 the rain which drops from the clouds, and is received into capa- 

 cious tanks attached to the several houses. A stranger must be 

 cautious how, and in what quantities, he imbibes the rain-water 

 at first, as it is liable to produce a severe dysenteric attack." 



