THE BEEMUDAS. 



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surface waters disappear rapidly, lacks the tropical exuberance attributed to it by 

 certain travellers. The more common European trees are nowhere seen in the 

 woodlands, whose general aspect is monotonous, recalling that of the northern 



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pine-forests. But in the rainy season the masses of pink blossom covering the 

 acclimatised oleanders are suggestive of Sicilian scenery. 



No indigenous mammals occur in the Bermudas, the rats and mice being- of 

 European and the bats of North American or West Indian origin. From North 

 America come nearly all the other animals, of 188 species of birds 3 alone 

 belonging to the Old World. The solitary Bermudan reptile is also of American 



