THE SCILLY ISLANDS. 



These islands are situated 24 geographical miles, 

 west, (by compass) from the Land's End of England ; 

 and when first seen from a ship's deck, resemble rug- 

 ged rocks running out of the water. They were an- 

 ciently called the " Cassiterides," or Tin islands, and 

 Strabo informs us, that, in his time, they were ten 

 in number, of which nine were inhabited by an en- 

 terprising people who bartered their tin, lead, and 

 the skins of their cattle for brazen and earthen wares, 

 salt, and other things brought from Cadiz by the 

 Phoenicians. 



Other writers have asserted that these islands were 

 named " Hesperides ;" that they were fertile, popu- 

 lous, and abounding in mines of tin and lead. When 

 the Romans had vanquished the Phoenicians, and 

 obtained a share of the commerce of Scilly, one Pub- 

 lius Crassus taught these islanders many improve- 

 ments in their mining operations, which had previously 

 been carried on at but little depths. 



After the Roman legions were withdrawn from 

 Britain, we hear no more of the Scilly islands for' a 

 period of 500 years ; during this period, which elap- 

 sed between the 5th and 10th century, it is conjec- 

 tured that great changes occurred among these islands, 

 either by volcanic convulsions, or else from the con- 

 stant erosion of the waves, by which these rocks are 

 constantly wearing away. Scilly, in a geological 

 point of view, may be considered as the rugged gra- 

 natic summit of a submarine hill, washed by the waves 

 of a turbulent sea, whose waters, aided by tides and 

 currents, are continually destroying the land. The 

 action of atmospherical agencies, the constant chafing 

 of the waves from the Atlantic Ocean, undermining 

 the chfFs and grinding the granite fragments into sand 

 and gravel, which being transported through sounds 

 and channels, exposed to every wind, accelerate the 

 work of destruction, and will ultimately reduce these 



