A, E. Verril—The Bermuda Islands; Geology. 97 
be a levelling process and does not extend, even in great storms, with 
noticeable effect, more than 100 to 125 feet below the sea-level. 
Hence it is probable that they have subsided at least 100 feet since 
they were eroded. 
19. Evidences of Reélevation of the Bermudas. 
The evidence in regard to the reélevation of the islands after their 
greatest depression, is not entirely conclusive. 
The evidence depends largely upon the existence of elevated beach 
deposits, containing existing marine shells, at various localities, from 
5 to 20 feet above high water mark, as described in chapter 15, on 
the Devonshire formation. 
It appears to me probable that some of those beds were made 
below sea-level, and therefore do actually give evidence of elevation, 
as stated on p. 76. That they are not more extensive and general 
may be due partly to the abruptness of the shores in most places, 
and partly to their subsequent erosion, for they would have been 
powerfully acted upon by the sea during their emergence, when they 
were doubtless mostly unconsolidated beds of sand. 
We might well expect to find such deposits around the low shores 
of certain land-locked bays and lagoons, where they are not now 
known to exist, had such an elevation taken place, even to the extent 
of 8 or 10 feet. Possibly such deposits may exist around Mullet 
Bay and other bays surrounded by low lands, but I am not aware 
that any one has made a careful search for them in such places. 
But it is possible that much of their bulk may have been carried 
away from such localities, by solution in rain waters, even if not 
much exposed to erosion by the sea. 
The most elevated beds of this kind now known are not over 15 
to 18 feet above the sea. Very few are more than 10 to 12 feet 
above it; ordinarily their elevation is only 5 to 8 feet above high 
tide. 
Professor Rice adopted the view that an elevation, of small amount, 
has taken place since these beds were formed, but Mr. Agassiz took 
the opposite view. (See above, pp. 76, 77.) 
Mr. Agassiz suggested that such materials could have been thrown 
by storm waves to such heights, and therefore that they do not 
prove elevation. This is no doubt true in exposed situations, but 
most of these beds are situated in partially sheltered harbors where 
such violent wave-action would probably not occur; moreover, the 
