A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 



417 



Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, they are distant 675 nautical miles, south; 

 and 830 miles north from Porto Rico, so that they offer a nearly 

 midway resting place for many flocks of migratory birds that ordi- 

 narily fly directly from Nova Scotia to the West Indies. These 

 migratory birds have doubtless brought the seeds of many plants to 

 the islands. 



The visible islands form a somewhat hook-shaped group with the 

 concavity on the northern side, facing the great lagoon, and with the 

 main axis running nearly northeast and southwest. The form of the 

 dry land may be more accurately compared to a partially closed 



Figure 1. — A Bermuda Residence in winter; at Hamilton. 



hand, seen in profile, and with the thumb and nearly approximated 

 finger-tips guarding the entrance to Great Sound and Hamilton 

 Harbor, the latter lying in the axil of the thumb; and the Navy 

 Yai'd at Ireland Island,* on the tip of the index finger, while the 

 wrist is represented by the eastern part of the group. (See map, 

 fig. 26.) 



The dry land of the islands amounts to only about 19^- square 

 miles, or about 12,373 acres. But the extensive submerged reefs 

 and the enclosed lagoons and shoals cover an elliptical area of 

 about 230 square miles, all of which was once dry land. Most 



* Ireland Island can best be reached by a small ferry boat that runs across 

 from Hamilton. 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XI. 



April, 1902. 



