1897.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 119 



very strongly that the older rock had suffered erosion before the 

 sandstone was deposited and that the latter had suffered erosion 

 to make the pett}' valleys now filled with water. 



Much the same must be said respeetino; the conditions seen at 

 Devonshire bay on the south shore. There the fossiliferous 

 beach rock rests on the crowded surfaces of the limestone and 

 is covered with sandstone, No one examining the locality can 

 fail to recognize that this exposure is hundreds of feet inland 

 from the seaward limit of the sandstone — that distance marking 

 the recent inroads of the sea. Yet at that distance from the sia 

 and at eight feet above the present level of the water, marine 

 forms occur in vast numbers, are of many species, in perfect con- 

 dition and show no evidence of chafing or tossing. It is more 

 than hard to understand how these shells could accumulate ex- 

 cept in the ordinary way. Professor Agassiz looks upon the 

 testimony of the marine forms as of questionable value and refers 

 to his discovery of marine shells on Gil^b's lighthouse hill at 

 one hundred feet from the shoi'e and twenty feet above water 

 level as well as to Professor Heilprin's discovery of marine forms 

 in ffiolian rock on the north shore. There is no difficulty in con- 

 ceding that, in the instance referred to b}- Professor Agassiz, the 

 shells were conveyed by wind or waves ; there is not the slightest 

 doubt that Bermuda winds and waves can dash large shells a long 

 way ; but however those occurrences may be or whatever the con- 

 ditions at those localities may be, they cannot effect the evidence 

 at Devonshire bay or the evidence of the rock dredged at sixteen 

 feet in Stag channel, for the matter is one in which a single in- 

 stance suflflces. No one familiar with fossiliferous deposits can 

 be misled concerning the rock at those localities. The animals 

 lived and died where the shells were found. 



As the rock at Devonshire bay is eight feet above the water, 

 it has been raised. The testimony at Stocks point is of the same 

 character, but alone, it would not suffice for argument. The 

 limestone surface on which the intermediate deposit rests there 

 resembles rather the craggy water-worn shore on the southerly 

 side of Castle harbor ; the conglomerate mass might easily be 

 loose material washed down from the hills mingled with sands 

 washed up by the waves ; but, taken in connection with the evi- 

 dence of elevation elsewhere, it must be regarded as confirma- 

 tory. In any event, there is sufficient evidence at Stocks point 

 that when the conglomerate mass was formed the relative posi- 

 tion of land and sea was very nearly what it is now ; that was 

 prior to the formation of the great mass of sandstone, whicli 

 overlies the beach rock deposit at so many localities. 



The formation of the sandstone began certainly as soon as the 



