A. FE. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands; Geology. 153 
of a thin belt of cedars just below. Very near this spot also, is a 
small circular group of the same trees, which the sand has passed, 
and imbedded to the depth of from six to eight feet; but the space 
within has been so perfectly screened, that the bottom of this little 
oasis is the natural green-sward.” 
“There is another encroachment at Tucker’s town, said to have 
taken place about sixty years ago; it has crossed the neck between 
Harrington’s Sound and the sea; but beyond this it does not seem 
inclined to move. The sand has not been stopped at the eastern 
extremity of this beach, where the bluffs commence, by their very 
considerable declivity,—though it has been most effectually at the 
crest of the slope, by a natural fence of sage bush, growing partly 
in the soil and partly in the sand; which as it ascended, seems to 
have thus rolled on with the seeds of destruction to its progress in 
its own bosom.” 
When J. M. Jones wrote (1866-72), the drifting sands were still 
quite active near Elbow Bay, as quoted in my former paper (vol. x1, 
p. 474), and nearly the same conditions evidently existed at the 
time of the visit of the Challenger, in 1873. When Jones wrote, a 
small cottage had been buried by the sand, the top of the chimney 
alone being visible.* This chimney and the moving sand dune or 
“sand-glacier” were figured by Thomson in the Voyage of the 
Challenger; The Atlantic, vol. 1, p. 310-13, figs. 74-76. 
But Jones stated that even in his time the activity of the moving 
sands had greatly diminished, as compared with 1850, owing to the 
vegetation. Stevenson, in 1897, stated that the sand had advanced 
but little at Elbow Bay in the previous 20 years. 
Probably the modern activity in the drifting of the sands was 
brought about in most cases by the reckless cutting of the cedars 
and the burning of the brush, combined, perhaps, with the disturb- 
ance of the surface soil to make roads or build forts, near the shore. 
* The description of this locality by Jones, 1876, p. 81, is as follows: 
‘‘On arriving at the north-east corner of the sand-hills, the encroachment of 
the drifting sand will at once be perceived ; as the mass, some ten feet in depth, 
is now gradually covering a small garden. According to the observations made 
by persons residing close to, this overwhelming body has advanced over the 
cultivated land about eighty yards, during the last twenty-five years. At the 
N.E. corner of the hills, will be seen among some oleander trees near the top, 
the chimney of a cottage which formerly stood there, inhabited by a coloured 
family. It is now wholly buried in the drifting sand, save the chimney ; which 
alone rises above the mass to show the position of the structure.” 
