A. EF. Verrili— The Bermuda Islands; Geology. 75 
near Hamilton. This layer was about 60 to 70 feet above sea-level 
and at about 130 feet below the surface of the hill. It was found 
in making a boring for a well at the military establishment on Pros- 
pect Hill. The layer of red clay was underlaid by strata of compact 
limestone. Perhaps this was a part of the Walsingham formation. 
A similar layer of red clay outcrops between limestones on Bishop 
Street, in Hamilton. It is about 60 feet above the sea. From this 
layer the sample of “ virgin red soil” was taken for analysis by Mr. 
Manning* (sample No. 3). 
15.  Beach-rock with Marine Fossils ; Devonshire formution ; 
Champlain Period. 
That beach-rocks, contaiming the common marine shells of the 
shores and shallows, are still in process of formation locally, on 
many parts of the shores, is plainly to be seen by any one who 
observes such phenomena critically. They are formed of the sands, 
coarse and fine, which are tossed up toward and above high water 
mark by the waves, and often in their upper parts blended with 
finer sands that have dried and then drifted along the beaches with 
the winds. Exposed alternately to the action of the sea water, rains, 
and air, they often harden rather rapidly, as explained above, into 
compact masses of limestone, usually of small extent, and with 
thickness varying greatly within short distances. The larger marine 
shells found in them are mostly broken by the waves, but many are 
entire. 
These modern deposits are seldom more than three or four feet 
above high tide, and are most frequent in partially sheltered bays 
and coves. 
Many of them are constantly being washed away by more violent 
gales, or by waves from some different direction, so that only a few 
become permanent. At certain places the modern sand-dunes have 
encroached upon and buried such beach deposits. 
It is evident that the same phenomena have been taking place in 
all previous periods of the geological history. But as the islands 
have subsided about 100 feet, it must be evident that all the older 
deposits of this nature must now be buried beneath the sea. The 
only beach deposits of much antiquity that we could expect to find 
would be those formed at some period when the islands stood at a 
slightly lower level than now, in the Champlain or post-glacial 
period (see p. 61). 
* See these Trans., xi, p. 493, table; also ‘‘ The Bermuda Islands,” p. 81. 
