INTRODUCTION 



The islands forming Bermuda, or the Bermudas, are an isolated group 

 in the Atlantic Ocean, in north latitude 32 14" to 32 23" (Castle Island 

 is 32 20"), and in west longitude 64 38" to 64 52" (Castle Island is 

 almost exactly 64 40"). The nearest land is Cape Hatteras on the coast 

 of North Carolina, distant about 568 nautical miles ; the distance to Halifax 

 is about 736 nautical miles, to Sandy Hook 666 nautical miles, to Charleston 

 about 700 nautical miles, and to Abaco, the nearest West Indian island of 

 the Bahama archipelago, about 700 miles to the southwest, to St. Thomas 

 about 800 miles to the southeast. 



The land area of Bermuda is a little over nineteen square land miles, or 

 approximately one-fourth the size of Staten Island, New York, or about 

 one-seventh the size of the Isle of Wight. There is a main island con- 

 taining perhaps three-quarters of the entire area, five islands each half a 

 square mile in area or more, some sixty little islands or cays, and many 

 more rocks or ledges projecting above the water. The islands are all close 

 together. The Bermuda banks or shoals, stretching northward and west- 

 ward from the islands, are of much greater area than the present land. 



The general outline of the archipelago is irregularly oblong, more accu- 

 rately fishhook-shaped, its longer axis lying northeast and southwest, with 

 a length of about fifteen land miles and a width near the middle (across 

 Pembroke and Paget) of about three land miles, but across the tip of the 

 fishhook from Ireland Island to the south shores of Warwick the distance 

 is about five land miles; the average width is somewhat less than one and 

 a half land miles. 



The rocks of Bermuda are wholly aeolian limestone, of recent geologic 

 age, and the soil has been entirely derived from the weathering and disin- 

 tegration of this limestone. The topography is hilly, with local broad val- 

 leys occupied by fresh water or brackish marshes, salt water bays and 

 lagoons. The highest points above the sea are about 250 feet elevation. 



Like many other portions of the earth, Bermuda has been subject 

 to alternate uplifts and depressions; the last vertical movement has appar- 

 ently been one of depression ; the land area was therefore probably greater 

 formerly than it is now; -possibly the area now occupied by the banks to 

 the north and west of the islands was land during some previous geologic 

 period. These islands and banks are the top of an isolated mountain 

 system or plateau, separated from all others by the abysses of the ocean, 

 and there is no evidence which justifies any assumption that it was ever 

 connected with other regions by land. 



