yune I, 1876] 



NA TURE 



97 



lotte Amalia, at St. Thomas, where a pleasant week was 

 spent, and on the 25th of March she proceeded on her way 

 to the Bermudas. On Monday the 26th, being then in lat. 

 19° 41' N., long. 65° 7' W., and nearly ninety miles north of 

 St. Thomas, a sounding was made in the great depth of 

 3,950 fathoms, and a dredge was let down to see if it would 

 prove serviceable ; heaving-in commenced at 1.30, and 

 the dredge came up at 5 p.m. with a considerable quan- 

 tity of reddish- grey ooze. No animals were detected 

 except a few small foraminifera with calcareous tests, 

 and some considerably larger of the arenaceous type. 



On the 4th of April she made her way through the intri- 

 cate and dangerous "narrows " between the coral reefs, and 

 by the evening was at anchor at Grassy Bay, Bermudas. A 

 fortnight was spent at these Islands. Their geological 

 structure was most carefully studied, and when the narra- 

 tive of the cruise is published we may expect very valu- 

 able information as to the formation of the various forms 



of limestone to be found on these islands. The principal 

 islands are well wooded, but the g^eat preponderance of 

 the Bermudian Cedar {Jimiperus bermiuiiana) gives a 

 gloomy character to the woods, which in the annexed 

 woodcut is somewhat relieved by the presence of some 

 palm trees (Fig. 6). .The Admiral's official residence, 

 Clarence Hill, is situated on an inclosed little bay called 

 Clarence Cove. The garden was rich with a luxuriant 

 tropical vegetation of which the group of papau trees, 

 Carica papaya (Fig. 7), will give some idea. 



There is only one kind of rock in Bermudas. The 

 islands consist from end to end of a white granular lime- 

 stone, here and there becoming grey or slightly pink, 

 usually soft and in some places friable, so that it can be 

 broken down with the ferrule of an umbrella ; but in some 

 places, as on the shore at Hungry Bay, at Painter's Vale, 

 and along the ridge between Harrington Sound and 

 Castle Harbour, it is very hard and compact, ahnost crys- 



[^ Fig. 6. — Swamp Vegetation, Bermudas. 



talliue, and capable of taking a fair polish. This hard 

 limestone is called on the islands the '* base rock," and is 

 supposed to be older than the softer varieties and to lie 

 under them, which is certainly not always the case. It 

 makes an excellent building stone, and is quarried in 

 various places by the engineers for military works 

 (Fig. 8). The softer limestones are more frequently 

 used for ordinary buildings. The stone is cut out of the 

 quarry in rectangular blocks by means of a peculiarly 

 constructed saw, and the blocks, at first soft, harden, 

 rapidly, like some of the white limestones of the Paris 

 basin, on being exposed to the air. 



Immense masses of fine coral sand surround the shores, 

 being washed in by ihe sea. It is then caught at certain 

 exposed points by the prevailing winds, and blown into 

 sand-hills often forty to fifty feet in height. Sometimes 

 these sand-masses form regular sand-glaciers. One of 

 these was found at Elbow Bay on the southern shore of 



the main island. The sand has entirely filled up a valley 

 and is steadily progressing inland in a stream some five 

 and twenty feet. It has, as will be seen in the wood- 

 cut (Fig. 9), partially overwhelmed a garden, and is 

 still flowing slowly on. When the photograph from which 

 the woodcut is copied was being taken, the owner of the 

 garden was standing with his hands in his pockets, as is 

 too much the habit of his race, contemplating the approach 

 of the inexorable intruder. He had, as will be seen, niade 

 some attempt to stay its progress, by planting a line of 

 oleanders and small cedars along the top of the slope, 

 but this had been in vain. 



The botanists of the expedition paid a good deal of 

 attention to the flora of the island, and we may expect a 

 lot of new forms among the minute algae found in the 

 so-called freshwater ponds or lakes. 



Bermudas was left on the 20th of April, and a section 

 was carried out from the islands towards Sandy Hook, 



