THE GEOLOGY OF BERMUDA. 21 



isnotliing moreremarkablein this narrative than the statement that they 

 made account at the first that they were cast away hard by the shore, 

 being high clifts, whereas they found themselves seven leagues off. It 

 is a positive proof that the north-west reefs, only a few points of which 

 are now above water at the lowest spring tide, were then some feet 

 above it. The expression high cliffs must bo interpreted by the circum- 

 stance of seamen in a small boat ajiproaching a dangerous shore, with 

 a heavy swell on, rendering it dangerous and difficult to land. But if 

 they were only 10 feet high, the amount of subsidence in less than three 

 centuries, shown by their present submergence, is a most significant 

 geological fact ; and Ilenry May has rendered an invaluable service by 

 mentioning the circumstance. The map in Purchas, published 1625, 

 confirms it. It shows three distinct islets, that have now disappeared, 

 along the line of the northern reefs. The North Rock of Bermuda, 14 

 feet high, and some smaller rocks near it, are all that remain to attest 

 the accuracy of these early descriptions." The statements of May ap- 

 pear to me rather to warrant exactly the contrary inference. If the 

 northern reef form ed then a line of cliff nearly or quite continuous, I am 

 unable to understand how lie could have supposed himself hard by the 

 shore when really several leagues from it. But, on the supposition that 

 the vessel struck near some islet or group of islets like North Rock, the 

 account becomes perfectly intelligible. The rocky islet could easily have 

 been mistaken in the storm for a line of cliff, and the mistake would 

 speedily become obvious on starting to row to the supposed shore. The 

 7 leagues of distance is, of course, the exaggerated estimate of men who 

 were rowing a heavy-laden boat, with a raft in tow, on a stormy sea. 

 That there may have been several islets scattered along the line of 

 the north reef, w hich have now succumbed to the action of the waves, 

 is on all accounts exceedingly i^robable. May's statement that the 

 island is divided into broken islands, and his estimate of the dimensions 

 of the island on which he found himself, and which he supposed to be 

 the principal one of the group, though the description is not sufficiently 

 delinite to afford any very reliable conclusions, certainly favor the belief 

 that the land was then not appreciably higher than at present. An 

 elevation which would convert the north reef into a continuous line of 

 cliff, would very seriously modify the broken character of the southern 

 side of the atoll, connecting most of the islets by continuous dry land. 

 The last notice supposed to indicate a subsidence within historic 



