4^ ISLES OP SUMMER. 



ried, but they acquire a flinty luirdnoss of surface, and assume 

 a subdued and darker shade (an ashen gray) when exposed to 

 the sun and air. 



The Bermuda Ishands are closely allied to the Bahamas, having 

 the same formation and being surrounded by coral reefs. They 

 are situated in the same latitude with Charleston, S. C, and are 

 seven hundred and eighty miles distant from Cape Ilatteras, and 

 seven hundred miles south-east of New York. Science has dis- 

 covered, and historical records have furnished most reliable evi- 

 dence, that this group of coral islands, since their first discovery 

 in the early part of the sixteenth centnry, have been in a state 

 of subsidence, so that they are noAv far less extensive than they 

 were between three hundred and four hundred years ago. Prof. 

 Dana says : " Twenty miles to the south-west by west from the 

 Bermudas there are two submerged banks, twenty to forty-seven 

 fathoms nnder water, showing that the Bermudas are not com- 

 pletely alone, and demonstrating that they cover a summit in a 

 range of heights ; and it may have been a long range," 



