449 A. E. Verrili— The Bermuda Islands. 
hills of the Main Island nearer at hand. Castle Harbor is a beauti- 
ful body of clear water, four to five miles across, containing numer- 
ous coral reefs, which afford very favorable places for studying the 
reefs and collecting specimens of many kinds. Living Brain Corals 
and some other kinds can be seen from the causeway, in shallow 
water. 
But the causeway itself has an interesting history from a scientific 
point of view. It was completed in 1871, at the cost of £28,000. It 
is about a mile and a half long and was originally almost entirely of 
stone masonry, with several archways at different points and a swing- 
bridge of iron, 123 feet long, near the eastern end. 
During the great West Indian hurricane of September 12, 1899, it 
was almost entirely demolished during the night. No one, so far as 
known, saw it go down. It was soon afterwards rebuilt, but much 
of the new work is of timber. A naturalist would reasonably expect 
that the timbers, when below half tide, will be eaten up by the 
Teredos or “Shipworms” in a few years, for they are sufficiently 
common at the Bermudas. 
It is said that the great seas and high tide that destroyed this cause- 
way came in from the southwest, through the rather narrow channel 
between the islands that guard Castle Harbor on the south side, and 
passed entirely across this shallow bay before reaching the masonry 
of the causeway. If so, one can hardly imagine the size and violence 
of the seas that dashed against the fully exposed cliffs of the south 
shore during that fearful night. It is certain that considerable 
changes were effected there at that time, and much loose material 
was washed away in many places. 
Great damage was done, at the same time, to the wharves and 
buildings at St. George’s, and to the causeway and other naval works 
at Ireland Island. Many large trees were blown down all over the 
islands, numerous boats were destroyed, and a large part of the build- 
ings were more or less damaged, many were unroofed, and some 
blown down. No lives were lost, as there must have been had not 
the dwellings been built with thick stone walls. 
No such severe storm had occurred here for just sixty years, but 
the great hurricane of Sept. 11, 1839, was very similar. 
The causeway is interrupted, toward the eastern end, by Long 
Bird Island, which owes its name to the immense number of “ Egg- 
birds” or Terns that bred on it when the Bermudas were first settled. 
These birds and their eggs and those of the Cahow were among the 
principal sources of food supply for the earliest settlers, and on one 
