All about the island one sees great white scars on the hill-slopes. These are dished spaces where the soil has been scraped off and the coral exposed and glazed with hard whitewash. Some of these are a quarter-acre in size. They catch and carry the rainfall to reservoirs; for the wells are few and poor, and there are no natural springs and no brooks.

In the absence of freshwater streams or springs, Bermudians depended on rainwater collected on the roofs and guided by gutter stones to drain pipes and down into large cisterns. Known simply as tanks, the cisterns were usually built underground. Clemens alluded to the custom only in his notebook.