54 A. EF, Verrill—The Bermuda Islands. 466 
The bulk of the land is contained in the Main Island, which is 
about 11 miles long, and contains about 9,725 acres. Four other 
islands are of considerable size. Two are at the western end: 
Somerset Island, with 702 acres; and Ireland Island, with 133 
acres. At the eastern end are St. George’s Island, with 706 acres ; 
and St. David’s Island, with 527 acres. ; 
The Main Island is connected by bridges with St. George’s Island 
and Long Bird Island at the eastern end; and with Somerset 
Island, Boas Island, and Ireland Island, at the western end, so that 
one can drive by good roads from one end of the group to the other. 
But St. David’s Island and many of the smaller islands can only be 
reached by boats. 
3.—Hills, Valleys, Sinks, Brackish Ponds, Swamps. 
The land of the larger islands is everywhere hilly. The hills are 
mostly gently rounded and are nothing but consolidated sand-dunes, 
consisting of shell-sand, blown from the beaches in ancient times, 
and hardened or cemented by the infiltration of rain-water tempo- 
rarily holding some of the limestone in solution, as will be more fully 
described in the chapter on Geology. 
This mode of origin, as sand-drifts, accounts for their rounded 
forms and irregular arrangement. Several of the higher are over 200 
feet high; the highest is 268 feet. This is an unusual height for 
sand-dunes, but is exceeded in the Bahamas and some other 
countries. But before the great submergence of these islands these 
hills must have stood at least 100 feet higher than now. (See 
Geology.) The great violence of the storms that often visit these 
islands ; the lightness of the materials; and the fact that the hills 
when once formed very soon harden at the surface, so that the sub- 
sequent storms cannot cut them down again, are sufficient reasons 
for their great elevation. 
Between the hills are irregular valleys of various sizes. Many of 
these are surrounded by hills or higher land on all sides, so that they 
have no outlet. (See plate Ixv, fig. 2.) They never contain water 
unless they are so low that they extend below the level of the sea ; 
in such cases they contain salt or brackish ponds, fresher at the sur- 
face, of which there are several of considerable size, as well as many 
smaller ones. 
A line of sinks, part of them containing brackish ponds, extends 
from Tucker’s Town westward for several miles to Paget Parish, 
nearly parallel with the south shore of the Main Island, and not far 
