THE BERMUDA ISLANDS. 28 
drift-rock, smmce they may easily be washed down by rains 
from a bank or bluff above the beach and imbedded in the 
beach-sands. 
“The usual softness of this drift-rock has made it a mat- 
ter of small labor and expense to secure easy grades on most 
of the roads in the islands, by making deep cuts wherever 
they are required. ‘These cuttings are of great interest to 
the geologist, from the beautiful illustration which they 
afford of that extreme irregularity of lamination which is 
characteristic of wind-drifts. Not only the country roads, 
but also the streets of the towns, abound in these beautiful 
and instructive sections. Fine exhibitions of this same struc- 
ture are to be seen in the natural sections afforded by the 
cliffs or pinnacles of the shore.” 
Professor Heilprin’s work on the Bermuda Islands con- 
tains three phototypes which show finely the general land- 
scape features of the rock. 
The great drift-sand hills, ridges, and flats, ike those of 
the Bahamas, are results of the fiercer storm-winds, as 
stated on page 155. At the Bermudas, the ordinary west- 
erly winds are feeble at transportation. But cyclones, as the 
“Sailing Directions” state, are very frequent, and “ especially 
b 
in the autumn;” and during the earlier and more furious 
half of the storm, the wind is easterly. In addition, “ Ber- 
muda squalls are sudden and violent tempests” of the winter, 
and in them the winds are from all directions. By compar- 
ing ordinary winds with violent tempests we may apprehend 
the difference at these times in the amount of force at work, 
and lose surprise over the differences in results. The “North 
Rock” is apparently the remains of drift-hills built up on the 
projecting northwest point of the reef-island ; but the surface 
must have been higher than now, for their formation. 
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