Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/405

Rh though there are several underground connections. This single surface connection is by means of a passage only about thirty feet wide, through which the water rushes with great swiftness during every tide. It is surprising for how short a time at the turn of the tide, five or ten minutes only, the water is relatively quiet. This narrow passage leads directly to the Flatts Inlet, which in turn connects with the great north lagoon. The inlet, not being very broad, is therefore swept by a rather strong current. This region ('The Flatts,' Map 1) is of particular interest to us, for it is on this inlet that our laboratory is located.

All the waters held, as it were, in the hand of the fancied gauntlet—Great Sound, Little Sound (Map 4), Hamilton Harbor (Map 3),

etc.—form another extensive landlocked sea. which formerly, in all probability, communicated less freely with the north lagoon than at present, for a submarine ridge runs out from Spanish Point—the tip of the thumb (Map 1)—to Ireland Island. At several points this ridge is awash at low tide.

Through the greater part of the main island there are three parallel roads (Map 3): one—known as the middle road—runs in a general way along the ridge; the others—known as north and south roads—run along the north and south shores. The north and middle roads meet at The Flatts, and nearly all the travel between the only two cities, Hamilton and St. George's, passes over the bridge which crosses the gorge between the inlet and Harrington Sound.

The houses of Bermuda are, almost without exception, made of the