A. E. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands. 487 
used by commercial vessels ; especially Hog-fish Cut, for reaching 
Elies Bay, or harbor ; some of them are still used by the fishermen. 
No doubt some of these could easily be improved and made into 
safe channels for large vessels, if the British government thought it 
expedient to do so. 
These channels have a special interest in connection with the 
geology of the islands, and will, therefore, be discussed under 
Geology ; most of them are shown on the map, (fig. 26, p. 480). 
Some of them, which are not indicated on the Admiralty Charts as 
extending through the reefs at all, are described by others as pass- 
able for vessels, though narrow and irregular. Therefore I have 
thought it best to quote the descriptions of most of them from another 
work. On the map (fig. 26) the cuts are indicated by the Roman 
numerals, VII-XV. 
The most important one is the main ship-channel, which is situated 
at the eastern end of the reefs and near the northeastern end of St. 
George’s Island. It is sufficiently deep for large naval vessels, but 
is narrow and crooked. It is, however, very carefully buoyed. (See 
map, fig. 26, S. C. and p. 418). 
In this place it will best serve my purpose to quote the descrip- 
tions of most of the others, printed with his sailing directions, by 
A. G. Findlay, 1870, who had personally examined them.* 
“Proceeding northward, the next channel is Wills’ Breaker Chan- 
nel, the entrance to which is half a mile North of the Mills’ Breaker, 
Its direction inwards is 8. W. towards the Narrows, and is only used 
by Bermudian vessels in and out. (Fig. 26, XIV.) 
Continuing in the same direction, the north-eastern face of the 
reef presents an impenetrable and continuous reef, often breaking, 
until we come to the North Rock Channels, haying a southerly 
direction. {North Rocks are at N., on fig. 26. | 
There are two channels by the North Rock; that on the eastern side 
of the Rock is called the Northeast, and the western, the Northwest 
Channel.+ 
* These descriptions are essentially the same in the various editions, down to 
the 15th, in 1895, but with some verbal changes. 
+ No passages through the reefs are indicated at the positions of either of 
these two channels on the U. S. Hydrographic Office chart of 1877, corrected to 
April, 1900, and based on the ‘‘ most recent British Admiralty Surveys” (1874 
and later). On the margin it is mentioned that extensive corrections were made 
in 1895 and 1897. 
On that chart the outer parts of both cuts are indicated, as penetrating the 
reefs, but the inner portions are shown completely interrupted and blocked by 
