274 Scientific Intelligence. 



6. JSfoles on the Bermuda Islands ; by Andrew Scott. — The gxcup 



of Bermuda Islands is situated in the middle of the Atlantic, just on the 

 border of the tropics, partaking of their fruitful climate >vithout their 

 heat and insalubrity, and of the north without its cold winters. It con- 

 sists of three or four principal islands and several hundred smaller ones, 

 enclosing picturesque bodies of deep and shallow water, and is nearly 

 surrounded by reefs almost level with the sea, extending seven to ten 

 miles from the shores ; its greatest length from northeast to southwest is 

 .about eighteen miles. The islands are all composed of coral like the 

 formation of the Bahamas and Florida reefs, but differ from them in 

 that they are much more elevated, some of the hills being a hundred feet 

 above the sea level. The soil is very scanty and supports naturally a 

 stunted growth of red cedar, and when cultivated produces rich crops. 



A process of nature is now going on in one of the principal islands, 

 which, in connection witli other facts may serve to show how they have 

 been raised to their present height without supposing a convulsion or vol- 

 canic action. 



The southern shores are bold ; a heavy surf is constantly breaking in, 

 converting the coral as jf^\st as it forms into sand, and forming extensive 

 beaches. The southwest winter gales at times are dreadfully severe; the 

 wind has taken up this sand and drifted it in one place half a mile or 

 more over the summit of the island, which is near ojig hundred feet high ; 

 it now covers land forty or fifty feet deep which but a few years ago was 

 cultivated. This body of sand is in view from the town of Hamilton; it 

 is fast increasing, and gives some anxiety to its inhabitants for feai' that it 

 may encroach upon their harbor. 



Now the whole formation of the islands above tlie level of the sea is 

 composed of just such sand, which, wherever it is exposed to salt water, 

 in a short time becomes hard. The surface rocks on the seashore ar« 

 very hard and rough, consisting for the most part of broken shells and 

 corals cemented together by the action of (probably) the lime in the salt 

 water. In the higher rocks there are no fossils; the few shells found are 

 similar to living ones, and may have been carried up by birds ; below the 

 surface the rock quarries out as soft as chalk, and when used for building 

 it becomes hard by saturating with lime-water. In the quarries and ex- 

 cavations for fortifications and roads, the formation is clearly exposed ; it 

 is all one kind, varying in hardness from loose sand to close-grained lime- 

 stone, lying in irregular beds just as sand might be supposed to have 

 drifted, and in some places showing a stratum or bed of soil identical 

 with the present soil containing roots of the cedar and vegetable remains 

 but Do^ signs of ever having been under water. There are no marks of 

 volcanic agency anywhere. There are several caverns and fissures near 

 the shores, ail with more or less of sea water in them, and so situated 

 that they might have been hollowed cut by the action of wind and water 

 without any other extraordinary cause. Stalactites are found in these 

 caverns. The water in wells does not rise above the level of the sea and 

 is too brackish for use; the inhabitants depend upon rains. 



The facts here stated of the geological formation of the Islands ot 

 Bermuda serve only to confirm the received theory of the formation ot 

 coral islands, and may not be new ; but on account of their elevation and 

 apparent stratification, some of the best informed gentlemen of Bermuda 

 take a different view and ascribe it to an upheaving force. 



