GEOLOGY. 9 
the best advantage, when lit up by the refulgent rays of a 
‘Mudian’ sun; and when the intense heats of summer prove 
too great for the wearied frame, it is delightful, indeed, to 
pay a visit to these cool, calm scenes of Nature. 
We were informed by Mr. Wood, that he believed his 
property to be perfectly undermined by caverns, and, doubt- 
less, there are many in various parts of the islands which 
remain for the investigation of future years. Col. Nelson, 
in his interesting paper, says, the largest cavern now 
known, and geologically speaking, the most instructive, is 
Bassett’s, near Somerset Bridge, which is said to extend for 
more than a mile. He says it is comparatively recent, from 
the fresh state of its surfaces, and the small quantity of 
stalactite observable ; he accounts for the origin of this 
cavern by the undermining of the substrata by the sea, the 
waters of which lie in pools at the bottom; “hence,” says 
the Colonel, “we may consider such caverns as hollows 
produced by internal landslips, from the most normal of 
- which, to the simplest niche, there is every intermediate 
point of transition.” The most exquisite bijou of all the 
Bermuda Caverns is that in Tucker’s Island; but it must 
be seen by several well placed candles, from the little boat, 
which must be launched into this beautiful cave. 
“To the unequal distribution of carbonate of lime in solu- 
tion, which forms ordinary rock on the upper parts of a 
section, or druses and breccias, as it filters through the 
strata of red earth to the lower beds, or to the caverns, 
where it crystallizes as stalagmite and stalactite,” the 
Colonel attributes not only the caverns and sandflows, but 
the pinnacled rocks, almost equally common in the islands. 
At Tobacco Bay, (St. George’s,) is a most curious group. 
