Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/411

Rh in the northern part of the islands, about Castle Harbor and Harrington Sound. The floors of these eaves are in some places below sea level, and since there is a free communication with the sea, deep pools of sea water are not uncommon in them. The water is so clear and unruffled that the incautious visitor is liable to walk into the pools unawares, even after being especially cautioned against it. The stalactite and stalagmite formations point to the solvent action of water as the cause of the caves. It is highly probable that many of the depressed areas of the land known as 'sinks,' as well as the sounds and harbors, are the result of the falling in of the roofs of caves. The 'sinks' vary in area from a few square yards to many acres.

These depressions contain the peculiar reddish brown earth that makes farming and gardening possible in the Bermudas. The richness of this soil and the favorable climate allow the farmer to keep the earth under constant cultivation and to procure several crops in the course of a year.

Although trees and shrubs in great variety are to be found in Bermuda, most of them are not peculiar to the islands, but probably owe their origin to introduction by natural agencies from the West Indies and the United States before historic times, while many are known to have been introduced by man, and not a few of these within comparatively recent times. The Bermuda cedar (Juniperus bermudiana) may be indigenous, though fifty years ago it was also found in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. The palms—a dozen species of which are said to be growing in the islands—and the palmettos, are the most noticeable growths to attract the eye of the northener. The royal palm (Fig. 10) surpasses all others both in height and in beauty, but the cocoanut palm (Fig. 11) is a worthy second, and many specimens of it are striking features of the landscape. In Queen Street, Hamilton, one drives beneath the sprawling branches of what we call a 'rubber plant' when it grows in pots in our conservatories. Here its branches have a spread of a hundred feet or so. On entering the Public Garden at St. George's, where many interesting exotics are found, one is confronted by a stately screw pine of most symmetrical