ever, to refer to those features which bear more particularly upon the 

 homes of the fishes. The sunken atoll, which is the foundation of the 

 group, is shaped like an ellipse, its major axis twenty-five miles in 

 length, its minor axis thirteen. The major axis runs in a northeast and 

 southwest direction, the chain of main islands lying on the southeast 

 edge of the ellipse, and forming a nearly continuous line twenty-six 

 miles long, the lower or western end curving, nearly in the shape of a 

 shepherd's crook or a fish-hook, to the southernmost focus-of the sup- 

 posed curve. The main islands, five in number, are separated by narrow 

 channels, fifteen or twenty feet in depth, and their shores are deeply in- 

 dented by shallow bays and lagoons. The reef, which approaches within 

 a few hundred yards of the shore of the main i^ands on the south, is dis- 

 tant ou'the north and northwest from five to nine miles ; the intervening 

 space is crossed and recrossed by submerged reefs and ledges of coral 

 limestone, and dotted in the neighborhood of the main islands by smaller 

 islands and emerging ledges to the number of three hundred or more. 

 The harbors are not particularly calm, but there are many broad bays 

 whose surface the severest storms scarcely ripple. Within the encircling 

 reef the depth of water rarely exceeds twelve and fourteen fathoms, 

 while beyond this reef the bottom rapidly slopes to the level of the 

 Atlantic bottom. Twenty miles to the southwest by west are two or three 

 ledges, to which the fishermen resort for line-fishing in fine weather. 



FISHERIES AND FISH-MARKETS. 



The Bermudian fisheries have always been famous. A large number 

 of the poorer islanders, particularly the negroes, are professional fisher- 

 men, and are bold and skillful sailors, though their ambition only suffi- 

 ces to keep them at work when purse and larder show signs of exhaus- 

 tion. Every cottage has its little garden, where bananas and sweet- 

 j)otatoes grow for the trou1)le of planting, so that the fishermen are not 

 entirely dependent upon their occupation for support, and the supply of 

 fish often falls far short of the demand, and this is especially the casein 

 the winter, when the landing of a boat is the signal for a general rush 

 to the shore. The people of Bermuda, over twelve thousand in number, 

 are dependent chiefly upon the fisheries for their animal food. Large 

 shipments of cattle and sheep are received from the United States, bn.i 

 these are monopolized by the wealthier classes and by the garrison, so 

 that their flesh rarely finds its way to the tables of the negroes, who ■num- 

 ber over seven thousand, or of the poorer white colonists, who constitute 

 more than one-half of the remaining population. 



