‘ BACKCUP 139

abundance the inhabitants have remedied the want by
collecting water for the requirements of the people and
the exigencies of cultivation. This has necessitated the
construction of immense reservoirs, which the rain fills to
overflowing with inexhaustible generosity. These works
deserve great admiration and do honour to the genius of
man.

It was precisely. the formation of these reservoirs, and
also my curiosity to see this fine work, that occasioned
my previous voyage.

I obtained some weeks’ leave from the company for
whom I acted as engineer in New Jersey, and I set sail
from New York for the Bermudas.

During my stay at Hamilton Island, a phenomenon
of geological interest occurred in the vast port of South-
ampton.

One day a whole flotilla freighted with fisher-people,
men, women, and children, appeared in Southampton
Harbour. ©

For fifty years these families had lived on that part of
the coast of Backcup which faced the east, where they
had built wooden huts and stone houses. The inhabitants
had every facility for gaining their livelihood in these
fish-abounding waters, and the sperm whales which
frequented the Bermudan latitudes during the months
of March and April were a chief source of sustenance.

Nothing until then had disturbed either the tranquility
or the industry of the fishermen. They did not complain
of the hardship of their lives, which was alleviated by