Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1884 — Bermuda’s Coral Reefs. [ARTICLE]

Bermuda’s Coral Reefs.

“There’s hills and mountains down there, sir, ” said an old sailor to me one day as we were scudding in toward the Sound; “and fields and forests, all made of coral. Of a clear day eight or ten miles outside, sir, with my water-glass, I’ve seen things as you could hardly believe if I told you. Mighty big trees, and places like grass plats and onion fields, bigger’n any in Bermuda; groves, like palmettos, and buildin’s and churches —cathedrals, I believe you call ’em—like they have in London, with heaps of steeples, and big fish going to meetin’ 1” ANo fairy tale, now, Captain.” "Nd, sir; all fact, except ’bout the meetin’. Fish hain’t got much feelin’, specially sherks, and marays, and graysnappers, you know.” The coral reefs on which the Bermuda Islands are built extend a distancesof from ten to twenty miles beyond the land west, north, and east, much of the intermediate space being dotted with islands and darkened by innumerable shoals that are of endless torment to sailors. The shores ate with little exception rugged, broken, made up of over-hanging cliffs and peculiar terrace like layers of rock. In places the ceaseless action of the waves have made deep caverns, bored holes, carved fantastic shapes and made decorations that resemble stucco work. Sea moss carpets, many of them weird-looking structures, hang in long wreaths from escarpment and cornice, where mermaids and mermen can go to work housekeeping and find all sorts of beautiful and mstbetic articles to embellish their interiors. Hermit crabs scramble awkwardly along the sharp ledges near the water, looking like criminals trying to hide, scudding for an untenanted periwinkle or vacant conch shell when pressed for time, while here and there, in natural aquaria, little tanks and bowls of water in the rocks, you can see pretty small fry that seem to have concluded to drop in there and rest till the tide comes up again and enables them to rejoin their congeners in the deep green sea.