me of the low branches of the Nassau trees,
and we were told that the plant will grow equally well if hung upon a
nail indoors. Emblematic of true affection, it clings, like Japanese
ivy, tenaciously to the object it fixes upon. One specimen was shown
to us which had developed to the size of the human hand from a single
leaf carelessly pinned by a guest to one of the chamber walls of the
hotel.

There are said to be six hundred of the Bahama islands, large and
small, of which Nassau is the capital, and there, as already
intimated, the English Governor-General resides. This numerical
calculation is undoubtedly correct; many are mere rocky islets, and
not more than twenty have fixed inhabitants. Is there anything more
wonderful in nature than that these hundreds of isles should have been
built up from the bottom of the sea by insects so small as to be
microscopic? All lie north of Cuba and St. Domingo, just opposite the
Gulf of Mexico, easily accessible from our own shores by a short and
pleasant sea-voyage of three or four days. They are especially
inviting to those persons who have occasion to avoid the rigor of
Northern winters. People threatened with consumption seek Nassau on
sanitary principles, and yet it was found upon inquiry that many
natives die of that insidious disease, which rapidly runs its career
when it is first developed in a tropical climate. To the author it
would seem that consumptives might find resorts better adapted to the
recovery of their health. Intermittent fever, also, is not unknown at
Nassau.

The sea gardens, as they are called, situated just off the shores of
the island, are well worth a visit; where, by means of a simple
instrument of wood and glass, one is enabled to look many fathoms
below the surface of the water, which is here so remarkable for its
transparency. These water glasses are all of home manufacture, easily
improvised, being formed of a small wooden box three or four inches
square, open at the top, and having a water-tight glass bottom. With
the glass portion slightly submerged, one is enabled to see distinctly
the beautiful coral reefs, with their marvelous surroundings. There
are displayed tiny caves and grottoes of white coral of great delicacy
and variety, star-fishes, sea-urchins, growing sponges, sea-fans, and
gaudy-colored tropical fishes, including the humming-bird-fish, and
others like butterflies with mottled fins and scales, and that little
oddity the rainbow-f