The post office and its story

Transcriber’s Note:
Footnotes have been collected at the end of each chapter, and are linked for ease of reference. Most illustrations are full-page photographs. These were described by a simple caption as well as a brief paragraph. They have been moved slightly to avoid falling on a paragraph break. These pages, and their blank reverse, were not counted in the pagination of the book.
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Any corrections are indicated as hyperlinks, which will navigate the reader to the corresponding entry in the corrections table in the note at the end of the text.
Heaving Overboard the Mails.
Fernando Noronha is a little island in the South Atlantic Ocean, and when a vessel does not call there the letters are enclosed in a cask, to which a flag is attached; this is cast into the sea and there left floating until a boat from the island picks it up. The island is sighted by perhaps more ships and visited by fewer than any other spot on the globe.
THE POST OFFICE
AND ITS STORY
AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF
THE ACTIVITIES OF A GREAT GOVERNMENT
DEPARTMENT
EDWARD BENNETT