466 A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 



The bulk of the land is contained in the Main Island, which is 

 about 11 miles long, and contains about 9,725 acres. Four other 

 islands are of considerable size. Two are at the western end : 

 Somerset Island, with 702 acres ; and Ireland Island, with 133 

 acres. At the eastern end are St. George's Island, with 706 acres ; 

 and St. David's Island, with 527 acres. 



The Main Island is connected by bridges with St. George's Island 

 and Long Bird Island at the eastern end ; and with Somerset 

 Island, Boas Island, and Ireland Island, at the western end, so that 

 one can drive by good roads from one end of the group to the other. 

 But St. David's Island and many of the smaller islands can only be 

 reached by boats. 



3. — Hills, Valleys, Sinks, Brackish Ponds, Swamps. 



The land of the larger islands is everywhere hilly. The hills are 

 mostly gently rounded and are nothing but consolidated sand-dunes, 

 consisting of shell-sand, blown from the beaches in ancient times, 

 and hardened or cemented by the infiltration of rain-water tempo- 

 rarily holding some of the limestone in solution, as will be more fully 

 described in the chapter on Geology. 



This mode of origin, as sand-drifts, accounts for their rounded 

 forms and irregular arrangement. Several of the higher are over 200 

 feet high ; the highest is 268 feet. This is an unusual height for 

 sand-dunes, but is exceeded in the Bahamas and some other 

 countries. But before the great submergence of these islands these 

 hills must have stood at least 100 feet higher than now. (See 

 Geolog} 7 .) The gi*eat violence of the storms that often visit these 

 islands ; the lightness of the materials ; and the fact that the hills 

 when once formed very soon harden at the surface, so that the sub- 

 sequent storms cannot cut them down again, are sufficient reasons 

 for their great elevation. 



Between the hills are irregular valleys of various sizes. Many of 

 these are surrounded by hills or higher land on all sides, so that they 

 have no outlet. (See plate lxv, fig. 2.) They never contain water 

 unless they are so low that they extend below the level of the sea ; 

 in such cases they contain salt or brackish ponds, fresher at the sur- 

 face, of which there are several of considerable size, as well as many 

 smaller ones. 



A line of sinks, part of them containing brackish ponds, extends 

 from Tucker's Town westward for several miles to Paget Parish, 

 nearly parallel with the south shore of the Main Island, and not far 



