76 A, E. Verrill— The Bermuda Islands; Geology. 
a. Devonshire formation. 
Some of the older and more elevated beach-rocks indicate that 
they were formed in such a period of depression. Some of these 
now lie 12 to 16 feet above the sea, and by the fine character of the 
materials and good condition of the shells, appear to have been 
formed in comparatively quiet waters, and not tossed up by hurri- 
canes, as Mr. Agassiz supposed. No doubt some of the coarser 
deposits, with broken shells, only 3 or 4 feet above the sea, as 
described by him, may have been tossed up by violent gales, for we 
know that recent Bermuda hurricanes have thrown broken shells, as 
well as rocks of considerable size, to the height of 10 to 15 feet, or 
even more, above high tide. But their action is much more destrue- 
tive than formative. No one has seen them leave regular thin-bedded 
deposits of fine materials and entire shells at any such elevations. 
The evidence, therefore, at present, is that the more elevated beach- 
rocks are of Champlain age, and were mostly deposited in partially 
sheltered bays and lagoons, where violent sea waves did not enter 
with great force. Yet in later times, the barrier reefs or islands 
protecting them having been worn away, some of them have come 
to be exposed on the outer shores, especially along the southern side 
of the main island (fig. 11). They are best displayed, perhaps, on 
the south éoast of Devonshire Parish, and therefore I propose to eall 
them the Devonshire formation, for a distinctive name. 
Professor Rice (1884, pp. 10-14) studied these rocks with much 
care. But he did not, in all cases, distinguish between the beach- 
rocks and the underlying hard eolian limestones of the Walsing- 
ham formation. Moreover, he supposed, like Heilprin, that they 
belonged to an earlier period than I do, and that they underlaid 
the wolian limestones generally, just as the Walsingham limestones 
do, instead of being of much later origin than the latter, and 
localized, or of small extent, as I believe. 
Stevenson, also (1897, p. 103), held a similar view. He called 
them ‘the intermediate deposits,”* believing that they were 
deposited directly over the Walsingham formation, and earlier than 
the ordinary zolian limestones. So far as their position is concerned, 
in many of the outcrops, their views were correct. But according 
to my observations, these rocks are much later and more local 
than they apparently supposed. Yet they are old enough to have 
* Part of the rocks to which he gave that name are of sand-drift origin and 
belong to the Walsingham formation. 
