E. MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY. 137 



that this formation represents a long period of calm, undis- 

 turbed by volcanic phenomena. 



The pliocene beds of the West Indies are found in Trinidad 

 and Barbadoes, and to the post-pliocene we may refer certain 

 deposits in St. Kitt's and Guadaloupe. 



From the general facts observed by Mr. Cleve, we may 

 conclude that, of the two prevailing lines of elevation, the 

 one running from west to east originated before the miocene 

 period, and the other, from northwest to southeast, commenc- 

 ing with the Bahamas and running down to Trinidad, was 

 found after this period. Two new minerals are described in 

 the memoir, one Resanite, a hydrosilicate of copper and iron, 

 and the other Bartholomite. 4 _Z>, September, 1872, 234. 



GEOLOGY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



Mr. J. Matthew Jones communicates to Nature the result 

 of some observations which he has lately made in the Ber- 

 mudas, and from which he concludes that what is at present 

 a group of islands was, in all probability, originally con- 

 nected by land, and that a large area has now measurably 

 disappeared by subsidence, leaving only certain higher points 

 above the water. This, in his opinion, is fully proved by 

 facts w r hich appeared in the course of recent excavations 

 made for the construction of the great Bermuda dock, where 

 a depth of fifty-two feet below low-water mark was reached. 

 At a depth of forty-six feet a layer of red earth was met 

 with, two feet in thickness, containing remains of cedar-trees, 

 and resting upon a bed of compact calcareous sandstone. 

 This, of course, sustains Mr. Jones's view that the present bed 

 of the ocean had been once elevated above the surface of the 

 water. On an examination of the soundings in the vicinity 

 of the group, he finds that an elevation of forty-eight feet will 

 bring the entire space intervening between the present land 

 and the Barrier Reef, now submerged, above the level of the 

 water. If, therefore, it is shown that the Bermudas were 

 forty-eight feet higher than now, it is highly probable that 

 they may have been still higher; and Mr. Jones thinks that 

 they extended as far as certain rocky ledges, thirty to thirty- 

 five miles to the southwest. 4 D, August 1, 1872, copied 

 from 12 A, November, 1872, 416. 



