A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 421 



and stunted cedars, with a few hardy shrubs and wiry grasses. 

 Ledges of gray limestone project through the thin soil, and most of 

 this resrion looks desolate and barren, as seen from the steamer. 

 Indeed, the northern hillsides of St. George's and the eastern end of 

 the Main Island look as bleak and sterile as the poorest and most 

 barren of the rocky sheep-pastures of New England. The dwarfed 

 Bermuda cedars look much like the red cedars of southern New 

 England in barren situations. 



But the early writers all agree that St. George's was at first heavily 

 wooded with cedars and palmettoes, like nearly all the other islands 

 having soil, including: even the the small islets of much less elevation, 

 many of which are still thickly covered with cedars. Probably the 

 lack of cedars to stop the salt spray was the most important factor 

 in causing this barrenness. For that purpose the cedar is well 

 adapted, because its dense foliage is not very sensitive to the poison- 

 ous action of the salt spray and therefore it makes good windbreaks 

 there. In this respect it is much like our red cedar and pitch-pine, 

 which ai'e often found on small islands and very near the shores. 

 Indeed, many of the smaller Bermuda islets, of which there are 

 more than a hundred, when covered with cedars closely resemble the 

 small wooded islands along the shores of Long Island Sound, as seen 

 in passing. Some of the early settlers mentioned that ships could 

 lie in Castle Harbor moored to the cedar trees on the islands. 



Governor Roger Wood, in a letter written in 1633, speaks of send- 

 ing cedar planks as presents to his friends in England, and mentions 

 that some were 30 and 32 inches wide and 12 to 13 feet long. They 

 were sawed out by hand. No cedar trees now existing there could 

 furnish planks approaching such sizes. 



At that period the cedar wood was highly valued in England for 

 choice furniture, on account of its fragrance, hardness, and rich 

 colors, for mahogany was not yet in use. 



Legal restrictions were very early imposed (before 1022) against 

 the reckless cutting of the cedars and palmettoes, on the ground that 

 even at that time the land was becoming unproductive, for lack of 

 the shelter given by the trees against the high winds. The poisonous 

 quality of the salt spray and sea-foam that is often driven by the 

 winds far inland over the hillsides, has gi*eat effect in keeping more 

 luxuriant vegetation in check, for it kills the foliage of most plants 

 on which it lodges, unless at once washed off by rain. 



As the steamer proceeds northwestward towards Hamilton, the 

 hillsides and lowlands become more and more covered with small 



