Bermuda has a wind velocity much greater than that of any of the resorts named in the tables, and its relative humidity is about that of Florida.
The charm of Bermuda is that the flowers bloom, vegetables grow, and the trees remain green the year round. Even though frequent short showers may fall each twenty-four hours more than half of the days during winter, the soil is so porous that there is little or no mud, and life is largely one of the open air, with a winter temperature that conduces to activity; in fact, the temperature is such that one requires heavy clothing all the time if one is to sit inactive in the open. There is neither frost, fog, nor malaria, nor snakes.
Bermuda lies 666 miles south of New York City and about 700 miles due east from Charleston, S. C., and 293 miles from the southern edge of the Gulf Stream, which, if the truth must be told, exercises no such influence on the climate of Bermuda as highly colored advertising circulars would have one believe. It is the great ocean, upon whose surface the islands make the most infinitesimal dot, that controls the climate of the Bermudas. The Gulf Stream, wonderful phenomenon that it is, is a sort of bug-a-boo to some who never have intelligently studied ocean meteorology. Travelers tell of the superheated atmosphere they encountered on crossing the Stream, and educators who should know better teach that the entire climate of Europe is markedly influenced by it. The fact is that there is no distortion whatever of the isothermal lines as they enter and leave the Gulf stream in any region north of Bermuda. (See [Chart 14].) The climate of Bermuda and of Europe is controlled largely by the great Atlantic Ocean, not by this small river of warm water, which broadens out and loses its identity long before the coast of Europe is reached, and whose influence is soon dissipated in the vast expanse of ocean air. The ocean has a great circulating system, northward on the western and southward on its eastern side. This circulation pushes the isothermal lines northward on one side and southward on the other.
The islands of Bermuda rise some 15,000 feet from the floor of the ocean, and project above the water to heights varying from 50 to 260 feet above sea level. Like jewels nestling upon the bosom of a sub-tropical ocean these islands, from one half to three miles wide, are strung along so close that one almost can hop over from one to the other. They lie in the form of a fish-hook; from the hole where the line of the fisherman would be tied to the point of the hook is about twenty-six miles. The topography is irregular and picturesque. On land there are caves and grottoes and subterranean lakes. January to May rose borders are abloom. In April the oleander is showing pink and crimson along every roadside, and the hedges hold these beautiful flowers for months; at Easter time lilies carpet the ground and perfume the air. Here morning glories have many forms and colors, which, with pendent bells, climb wide-spreading cedar trees, and wild passion flowers cover rocky cliffs.
The sea is so transparent that many feet below the surface the eye may follow the movements of marine life housed about by coral formations of strange devices. The colors of the sea are as changeable as the opal. Over shallow bottoms the colors are delicate shades of light green, over the shoals brownish hues, and beyond the dangerous reefs, which have sent many a sailor to his long home, and behind which numerous pirates of old have taken refuge, the waters vary from the light blue of the sapphire to deep green. The prismatic colors are forever laughing and dancing to the eye of the beholder. The shadow of a cloud, a ripple of the surface, a different angle to the fall of sunshine as the day advances, deepen or brighten the tints through a wide range of color.
Through the glass bottom of a boat one may look into the gardens. Rising from the bottom and waving gracefully with the movements of the waters, like tree ferns moved by gentle zephyrs, are purple sea fans and tall black rods. Beautifully colored fishes dart about, or lazily bask in the sun that illumines their coral grottoes; weeds of many colors; green and scarlet sponges; vegetable growths delicate in formation and brilliant anemones cling to ledges of rock that here and there are tinted with pink.
Rival champions of the east and the west coasts of Florida may fortify themselves by a study of the tables. It may be noted that Miami and Tampa have the same midday temperature, but that Tampa has a greater range, the night temperature on the average falling five degrees lower than Miami; also that Tampa, which can be taken as typical of St. Petersburg, has but twenty-one rainy days on an average from December to March inclusive, while Miami has thirty-four. Bermuda has sixty-five days with rain during the period, with much wind. From these data one may select the climate that best suits him and he may know that the data are accurate and put forth by some one not interested in advancing the interest of one place over another. No country in the world has more delightful and healthful climates for winter and for summer than can be found in the wide domain of the United States.
U. S. WEATHER BUREAU
Average Temperature, Humidity, Days with Rain, Cloudiness, and Wind at