nge orgies took place at the Hermitage,
where the play was for heavy stakes, and the drinking was of a similar
excessive character.

Another well-known individual who sought to make a home here, and also
to escape from all former associations, was the notorious
Blennerhasset, a name familiar in connection with Aaron Burr. After
his trial, it will be remembered that he suddenly disappeared, and
was heard of no more. He left his country for his country's good,
changing his name to that of Carr. His objective point was Nassau;
there his undoubted talent and legal ability were duly recognized and
he was appointed government attorney, officiating in that capacity for
a number of years. Having deserted his first wife, he found another to
console him upon the island. At last wife number one appeared upon the
island. She had discovered his hiding-place, and a domestic war
ensued. Wife number two carried the day and the rightful spouse was
sent away and paid an annuity to keep away. The pretended Mr. Carr is
said to have finally lapsed into habits of excessive intemperance, and
to have found a stranger's grave on the island.

Much of the drinking water, and certainly the best in use at Nassau,
as well as on some of the neighboring islands, is procured in a
remarkable, though very simple manner, from the sea. Not far from
shore, on the coral reefs, there are never-failing fresh water
springs, bubbling up from the bottom through the salt water with such
force as clearly to indicate their locality. Over these ocean springs
the people place sunken barrels filled with sand, one above another,
the bottoms and tops being displaced. The fresh water is thus
conducted to the surface through the column of sand, which forms a
perfect filterer. Such a crude arrangement is only temporary, liable
to be displaced by any severe storm which should agitate the
surrounding waters. If destroyed in the hurricane season, these
structures are not renewed until settled weather. In so small and low
lying an island as that of Nassau, it is very plain that this crystal
liquid, pure and tasteless, cannot come from any rainfall upon the
soil, and its existence, therefore, suggests a problem, the solving of
which we submit to the scientists.

On the arid shores of the Persian Gulf, where rain so seldom falls,
and where there are no rills to refresh the parched soil, fresh water
is also obtained from submerged springs beneath the salt water. Here
it is bro