A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 449 



the largest. It is one of the islands on which the " Cahow," a 

 remarkable extinct bird, peculiar to the Bermudas, bred in vast 

 numbers when the islands were first settled. It burrowed in the 

 earth, like the petrels, but its flesh and eggs, unlike those of petrels, 

 were prized as food, and the species was exterminated in a few 

 years. In Governor Butler's "Historye" he states that it was 

 nearly exterminated in 1615, when there was a great scarcity of 

 other food. (See Part III, chap. 29.) This island was also notable, 

 in the early history of the islands, as one of the places where a 

 Yellow-wood tree was found, bearing a cross and a brass memorial 

 tablet, and hence it was supposed to have buried treasures upon it. 

 (See Part III, ch. 26, e, under Deforesting.) 



Cooper's Island is now lai'gely cultivated. It is one of the few 

 places where the great Land-crab ( Cardlsoma Guanhvmi) can still 

 be found, burrowing its large, deep holes in the sandy soil. A much 

 smaller kind (Gecarcintis lateralis), with similar habits, is also found 

 in abundance, as well as on most of the other islands where there is 

 loose sandy soil. (See ch. 32.) 



The next island of any importance is Nonesuch, which is smaller 

 than Cooper's. It contains about seven acres. The quarantine 

 station is situated on this island. 



The Ruins of the Old Forts. 



Farther to the westward ai'e several small, barren, uninhabited 

 islands that are chiefly interesting because of the old ruined forts 

 upon them. Some of these were built by the earliest settlers, 

 between 1612 and 1621, with great labor and pains, to protect the 

 entrances to Castle Harbor. The settlers lived for many years in 

 constant dread of an invasion by the Spanish fleets, or privateers, 

 and considered these forts of paramount importance. This fear, on 

 the part of Governor Moore, was natural and justifiable, because of 

 the instructions of the Company, from the beginning. 



The colony had only been located a few months when in Decem- 

 ber, 1612, the Company sent out a special ship to warn the governor 

 to prepare " with all expedition," to defend the islands against the 

 Spanish, " whom they understood ere long would visit them." Later 

 they blamed the governor for spending so much labor on the forts. 



The earliest platforms, forts, and redoubts were built of cedar 

 timber, but some of the platforms built by Governor Butler, 1619— 

 22, were of stone. And perhaps some of those built in J 626 and 

 162*7 were also of stone. 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XI. 29 April, 1902. 



