388 Rev. R. A&hington Bullen — 



Similar evidence of this fact is supplied by others. "The south- 

 west wind, the prevailing one, is generally preferred by the natives, 

 as the warmest in winter and the coolest in summer ... in the 

 winter months the weather is delightfully bracing, wheu the wind is 

 northerly without being too boisterous." l 



" The prevailing wind throughout the year is from the south-west. 

 The northerly winds are comparatively dry, but those from the soutli 

 are vapour-laden ... 9 grains to the foot of air being the average 

 maximum of dampness and 6J the general average." 2 



The result is, and probably has been throughout the various stages 

 of the existence of the Bermudas, that the highest land was always to 

 be found along the south side of the islands and the lowest towards 

 the north. A glance at the Map (Plate XVIII) will show the reason 

 that the greater part of the old Berniudian land is below the waves. 

 For a subsidence of a very small amount would suffice to bring the lands 

 on the northern side within the disintegrating action of the ocean 

 waves. The flats that form part of that submerged land are fairly 

 level in their general surface and only a slight distance under water, 

 sometimes only about a foot, as may be seen in the photograph of 

 the Governor (General Lefroy) and others standing on the flats near 

 the North Bock in 1875. 3 



Harrington Sound is almost landlocked, and the water in the 

 deepest parts is from 10 to 12 fathoms. The main current runs out at 

 Flatts Village, but a great deal more reaches the sea by underground 

 passages, as may be seen at the west of Castle Harbour (Text-fig. 3), 

 where a great body of salt water pours through the beach as the tide 

 goes down. Harrington Sound was undoubtedly once a valley in 

 Proto-Bermuda, and the present depth of its floor may be taken as 

 a measure of the subsidence which the former land has undergone, 

 with perhaps some other, slighter oscillations. 



A Bermuda elevated this amount above the present mean level of 

 the ocean would measure about 230 square miles, instead of 19^ as at 

 present, which seems to be the closest measurement made. This land 

 Verrill calls Pliocene Bermuda. It may contain rocks of an even 

 earlier age at its base, but the higher points and ridges of land are 

 still underlain by the hard base rock in which are to be found the 

 caves for which the Walsingham district of Bermuda is famous. All 

 the caves may not, however, be of this age. But it is difficult to see 

 how this formation can be attributed to any more recent origin, since, 

 for reasons which will be apparent later on, it precedes the red clay 

 which must have been formed at a time of great rainfall, and may 

 be placed in the Pleistocene period, or probably earlier. 



III. The Principal Geological Formations. 

 The principal geological formations of Bermuda are four: (1) the 

 Walsingham, (2) the Devonshire, (3) the Paget, and (4) the Recent. 

 The names Walsingham, Devonshire, and Paget are taken from the 

 names of the parishes in which the several formations can be best 

 studied. 



1 A Field Officer, Bermuda, 1857, pp. 31-2. 



2 Nelmes' Bermuda Guide, p. 54. 3 Verrill, op. cit., p. 117. 



