162 LITERATURE. 
use does not come from springs, (there are 
none in the island,) but from reservoirs or 
tanks, neatly excavated, which collect the rain. 
Of these there are five or six, holding from 
three to four thousand gallons of water each, 
sufficient not only for the consumption of the 
inhabitants, but for supplies to whalers and 
other vessels. 
With respect to literary occupation, " You 
will be glad to hear," wrote Mr. Armstrong to 
the author, " that they are all well educated. 
The young men are instructed in navigation, 
and some of the lower branches of mathematics. 
They all live together in the greatest harmony, 
and in the strictest observance of religious 
duties public, family, and private with every 
appearance of perfect freedom from all crime, 
and bearing the stamp of extreme innocence and 
simplicity. 
" A new regulation has been recently made 
for the distribution of all their books among the 
families, they having been before kept as 
public property, as it was believed they would 
be more read and valued in that way. Shelves 
have been put up in all their houses, which are 
very neat and comfortable, though more like 
ship-cabins than dwelling-houses. The reason 
they give for this arrangement is, that they are 
in the habit of walking into each other's houses 
with the same freedom as into their own ; and, 
taking up a book, will sit down and read it 
aloud, or not, as they feel disposed. The books 
of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 
reached them in good time, some of which were 
