421. A. FE. Verrill— The Bermuda Islands. 9 
and stunted cedars, with a few hardy shrubs and wiry grasses. 
Ledges of gray limestone project through the thin soil, and most of 
this region looks desolate and barren, as seen from the steamer. 
Indeed, the northern hillsides of St. George’s and the eastern end of 
the Main Island look as bleak and sterile as the poorest and most 
barren of the rocky sheep-pastures of New England. The dwarfed 
Bermuda cedars look much like the red cedars of southern New 
England in barren situations. 
But the early writers all agree that St. George’s was at first heavily 
wooded with cedars and palmettoes, like nearly all the other islands 
having soil, including even the the small islets of much less elevation, 
many of which are still thickly covered with cedars. Probably the 
lack of cedars to stop the salt spray was the most important factor 
in causing this barrenness. For that purpose the cedar is well 
adapted, because its dense foliage is not very sensitive to the poison- 
ous action of the salt spray and therefore it makes good windbreaks 
there. In this respect it is much like our red cedar and pitch-pine, 
which are often found on small islands and very near the shores. 
Indeed, many of the smaller Bermuda islets, of which there are 
more than a hundred, when covered with cedars closely resemble the 
small wooded islands along the shores of Long Island Sound, as seen 
in passing. Some of the early settlers mentioned that ships could 
lie in Castle Harbor moored to the cedar trees on the islands. 
Governor Roger Wood, in a letter written in 1633, speaks of send- 
ing cedar planks as presents to his friends in England, and mentions 
that some were 30 and 32 inches wide and 12 to 13 feet long. They 
were sawed out by hand. No cedar trees now existing there could 
furnish planks approaching such sizes. 
At that period the cedar wood was highly valued in England for 
choice furniture, on account of its fragrance, hardness, and rich 
colors, for mahogany was not yet in use. 
Legal restrictions were very early imposed (before 1622) against 
the reckless cutting of the cedars and palmettoes, on the ground that 
even at that time the land was becoming unproductive, for lack of 
the shelter given by the trees against the high winds. The poisonous 
quality of the salt spray and sea-foam that is often driven by the 
winds far inland over the hillsides, has great effect in keeping more 
luxuriant vegetation in check, for it kills the foliage of most plants 
on which it lodges, unless at once washed off by rain. 
As the steamer proceeds northwestward towards Hamilton, the 
hillsides and lowlands become more and more covered with small 
