GENERAL INPRESSIONS. 3 



were marked off at irregular intervals, and at points where rising 

 waves apparently met the supplemental strokes of the tail. 

 The duration of flight was from five to eleven or twelve seconds, 

 while the distance covered was probably, in extreme cases, not 

 less than 200-300 feet, and possibly even more. 



The inner waters of the reef showed those remarkable con- 

 trasts of color which have been so frequently dwelt upon and 

 depicted by travelers. From the most intense indigo we pass 

 abruptly to a brilliant emerald, and from this again possibly 

 to a bright sea-green. So sudden are the transitions that the 

 semblance of a natural water is largely destroyed, and for a 

 moment one feels inclined to doubt the reality of the scene 

 before him. I must confess that had I been informed in ad- 

 vance of these wonderful chromatic effects, I should have been 

 loud in pronouncing the impossibility of their occurrence, so 

 wholly unnatural did they appear. 



Passing through the line of old hulks, whose grass-grown 

 bottoms and battered planks emphasized the words of condem- 

 nation which relegated the ancient merchantmen to the rank 

 of objets d' art, we entered the harbor of Hamilton. The fact 

 of its being Sunday did not obtrude itself upon the throng that 

 had assembled to greet us on our arrival. The helmeted red- 

 coat and servant, custom-house officials and steamship agents 

 were out in force, but they were far outnumbered by that class 

 of easy-going inhabitants whose hardest labor appears to be 

 that of doing nothing. The time-honored custom of building 

 connecting gang-planks instead of bringing the ship close up 

 to the wharf, delayed our debarkation by about a half-hour, but 

 delays of this or a similar kind, as we soon discovered, are of 

 little moment with the Bermudians. 



The capital city, Hamilton, has little of interest to detain the 

 stranger beyond the beautiful display of exotic plants which 

 are to be found in the private gardens. The broad and pleas- 

 ant avenues which intersect the town at nearly right angles, 

 and glisten with that intensity of which only a white lime- 

 stone is capable, possess the general features of the ordinary 



