l6 BERMUDA. 



Bermuda consists of a series of islands, some very small 

 indeed, others several miles in length, there being, it is said, 

 an island for every day in the year. The islands are disposed 

 in an irregular semicircle, and the larger ones of the chain 

 are narrow and elongate in form. This semicircle or rather 

 semiellipse is completed below water, or made into an entire 

 atoll shape by a series of coral reefs, as may be seen by a 

 glance at the chart. A few narrow and winding passages lead 

 in through the reefs to the harbours of St. George's, Ireland 

 Island, and Hamilton the capital town. The highest point is 

 only about 300 feet above the level of the sea. 



The islands are almost entirely composed of blown cal- 

 careous sand, more or less consolidated into hard rock. In 

 several places, and especially at Tuckers-town and Elbow Bay, 

 there exist considerable tracts covered with modern sand 

 dunes, some of which are encroaching inland upon cultivated 

 ground, and have overwhelmed at Elbow Bay a cottage, the 

 chimney of which only is now to be seen above the sand. The 

 constant encroachment of the dunes is prevented by the 

 growth upon them of several binding plants, amongst which 

 a hard prickly grass [Cenchriis), with long, deeply-penetrating 

 root fibres, is the most efficient, assisted by the trailing Ipomcea 

 pes caprcc. When these binding plants are artificially removed, 

 the sand at once begins to shift, and the burying of the house 

 and the present encroachment at Elbow Bay are said to have 

 originated from the cutting through of some ancient sand-hills 

 for military purposes. 



The sand is entirely calcareous, and dazzling white when 

 seen in masses. When examined closely, in small quantities, 

 it is seen to consist of various-sized particles of broken shells. 

 By gathering samples from the shores where the material of 

 which the sand is formed is first thrown up, and selecting 

 portions where eddies of the wind have left the heavier 

 particles together, a sand full of large fragments of shell, and 

 containing even many whole shells of smaller species, may be 

 obtained, and from the examination of these an accurate 

 conclusion may be arrived at as to the main constituents of 

 the finer, more comminuted sand, which is driven inland by 

 the wind, blown up into the dunes, and from which the whole 

 island above water has been formed. 



The sand may be seen to be made up in by far its greater 

 part of the shells of Mollusca. Species of Telltna, Cardmni, 

 and Area contribute most largely to compose the mass, 

 together with large quantities of pink-coloured fragments de- 

 rived from a Spondyhis, which is common about the islands. 

 A few Gasteropodous shells contribute fragments, and a con- 



