262 



NATURE 



S^Aug. I, 1872 



that of " sitting up " — an accomplishment which he had great 

 difficulty in acquiring. This was not owing to any stupidity on 

 his part, for when he had once passed over this/i)«i asinorum of 

 dog-performances, he proved to be a very clever animal, and 

 learnt many other tricUs with great ease. He appears, however, 

 never to have forgotten the pains which were taken to teach him 

 his first trick, and to have judged therefrom that there is great 

 merit in sitting up. Not only does he rely upon this as a last re- 

 source to move me to take him out, or not to whip him, but he 

 judges that it must soften even the heart of an india-rubber ball. 

 Sometimes when annoyed at his playing with this, his favourite 

 toy, 1 have placed it on a chimney-piece, and turned my attention 

 elsewhere. On looking round again I have seen my dog sitting 

 up to the india-rubber ball, evidently hoping that it would jump 

 down and play with him again. Perhaps he looks upon this ball 

 as "animated by a living essence " {viJe Chap. ii. of Darwin's 

 " Descent of Man "). 



My dog is now the father of a family, and one of his daugh- 

 ters, who has never seen her father, is in the constant habit cl 

 sitting up, although she has never been taught to do so, and has 

 not seen others sit up. She is especially given to this perform- 

 ance when any other dog is being scolded. Whether this is an 

 instance of helping a fellow animal, of which Mr. Darwin gives 

 such curious examples, or whether the dog simply hopes to avert 

 the passing storm from her own head, the fact appears to me 

 patent, that this dog has inherited the impression that sitting up 

 has some special virtue for turning away wrath. 



L. Hurt 



Alexandra Hotel, Harrogate, July 27 



A^ 



RECENT OBSERVATIONS IN THE 

 BERMUDAS 



S my late visit to these islands has placed me in 

 >- possession of facts relating to their original aspect 

 of a somewhat conclusive nature, I deem it advisable to 

 communicate such in a brief form, instead of awaiting the 

 time requisite for the preparation of a more elaborate 

 paper on the subject. 



On previous occasions I have always regretted my in- 

 ability, from lack of time, to look more closely into their 

 geological character in the hope of discovering some 

 satisfactory clue to their primitive condition. I was 

 aware that in ditferent parts of the islands road cuttings 

 and well borings had revealed layers of red earth at 

 certain depths below the surface, the consistence of 

 which was similar to that now forming the present surface 

 soil, and it did not require much force of imagination, 

 after personal inspection, to conceive that such layers of 

 red earth were first formed by the decomposition of vege- 

 table matter which grew upon former surfaces, and became 

 covered to their respective depths by accumulated masses 

 of drift sand, which iVom natural causes hardened into 

 more or less compact sandstone. But these different 

 layers were but a few feet beneath the surface, and so, 

 although interesting as throwing light upon the gradual 

 elevation of the land by drift material forming over them, 

 yet they afforded no evidence of a contrary nature— viz., 

 the submergence of the Bermuda group. Indeed, I have 

 always been led to suppose from appearances that the 

 whole group was the result of an upheaval of the ocean 

 bed slightly above the water level, and a gradual elevation 

 afterwards by means of drift matter aided by the consoli- 

 dating agency of reef-building zoophytes encircling the 

 whole with a barrier reef, and by isolated patches 

 gradually filling up the space within. The investigations, 

 Irowever', which 1 have recently been able to make, tend 1 

 tiiink to prove that the barrier reef encircling the islands 

 wliich has hitherto been considered an atoll is merely the 

 remrant of the more compact calcareous rock which 

 formed the shore of a much moie extensive island group 

 than that now existing. 



My views in this respect are borne out by the follow- 

 ing facts ; — The barrier reef, as far as I have inspected 



it, is merely ordinary calcareous rock coated with 

 serpute, nuliipores, &c., the reef builders only working 

 in the sheltered waters between the reef and the shore 

 in three to eight fathoms. About two years ago sub- 

 marine blastings were carried on at the entrance of 

 Hamilton Harbour, and at a depth of over six fathoms a 

 cavern was broken into which contained stalactites and 

 red earth. Again, within the last few months, I have, 

 through the kindness of his Excellency Major-General 

 Lefroy, C.B., F.R.S., the present Governor, been placed 

 in possession of still more satisfactory information. 

 During the past two years extensive submarine blastings 

 have taken place inside an artificial harbour, situate at the 

 western extremity of the islands, for the purpose of form- 

 ing a bed of sufficient depth for the reception of the 

 ■' Great Bermuda Dock," which attracted so much 

 attention off Woolwich when launched some three or four 

 years ago. The excavations extended to a depth of fifty- 

 two feet below low water mark. At forty-six feet occurred 

 a la)er of red earth two feet in thickness, containing re- 

 mains of cedar trees, which layer rested upon a bed of 

 compact calcareous sandstone. Here we have the first 

 satisfactory evidence of the submergence of an extensive 

 deposit of soil once upon the surface, and that to the 

 depth of forty-eight feet below the present low water 

 level, which consequently giants an equal elevation above 

 it in former times. Now, on caretully surveying the 

 Bermuda chart, we find that an elevation of forty-eight 

 feet will bring the whole space which intervenes between 

 the present land and the barrier reef, now covered with 

 water, above the water level. This attained, what more is 

 required to prove the former extent of the island group 

 bclore the present submergence to the present barrier 

 reef ? But having clearly ascertained beyond doubt that 

 the Bermudas were once forty-eight feet higher than at 

 present, will any one be bold enough to deny them a 

 greater elevation ? 1 have reason to believe that they once 

 extended in a south-westerly direction — not only out to 

 the reef, but to a greater distance. There arc some rocky 

 ledges about twenty to twenty-five miles from land in that 

 direction, known as " The Flatts," lying in about thirty- 

 five to forty fathoms water ; and, singularly enough, in the 

 very oldest maps of the Atlantic, copies of which I have 

 consulted in the British Museum, "The False Bermu- 

 das" are put down about this position. Is it unreason- 

 able to suppose that a low lying group of islets did actually 

 exist here in former times .'' Again, in Smith's ''History 

 of Virginia," which gives an excellent account of the 

 islands in the early part of the seventeenth century, it is 

 stated among other notes upon their natural history that 

 flocks of crows, no doubt the same species {Corviis Aiiteri- 

 caniis) which now inhabits them, were in the haj^it every 

 evening of winging their flight from the main island 

 towards the north. This observation, which from its 

 simplicity I should the more readily believe to be a true 

 statement, would clearly prove the existence of land in 

 that direction at no great distance; for the habit of this 

 bird to leave its roosting place for distant feeding grounds 

 during the day, to return at random, is one of its well-known 

 characteristics. 



Taking these matters into consideration, I see every- 

 thing to support the supposition that the Bermudas once 

 presented a much more extensive aspect than they do at 

 present, and certain additional evidences which I hope 

 to bring forward shortly in a coUected form will, I con- 

 ceive, tend to confirm my impression that the restricted 

 terraqueous area lying within the limits of the outer 

 barrier reef is merely the summit of one of a range of 

 islands wnich extended in somewhat semicircular form for a 

 distance of seventy or eighty miles, and which ha\ e suffered 

 submergence to a depth only to be correctly ascertained 

 by borings, which might be successfully accomplished 

 under the auspices of the Imperial Government at a 

 trilling expense. J. Maithew Jones 



