66 A. EF. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands. 478 
Town, and he gave a good history of the beginning of these invasions 
of sand. After discussing that near Elbow Bay (see under Geology), 
he gives the following account of this region :— 
“There is another encroachment at Tucker’s Town, said to have 
taken place about sixty years ago [about 1777]; and has crossed the 
neck between Harrington’s Sound and the sea; but beyond this it 
does not seem inclined to move. The sand has not been stopped at 
the eastern extremity of the beach, where the bluffs commence, by 
their very considerable declivity,—though it has been most effectually 
at the crest of the slope, by a natural fence of sage bush, growing 
partly in the soil and partly in the sand; which, as it ascended, 
seems to have thus rolled on with the seeds of destruction to its 
progress, in its own bosom. 
The same operations appear to have occurred throughout the sand 
tracts at and near Great Turtle Bay.” 
From this description it seems that the vegetation, at this very 
exposed place, has not been able to much more than hold its ground 
against the sand, but Nelson’s account is too general to permit us 
to decide whether there has been any marked change in the extent 
of these dunes during the last 70 years. It would seem that there 
has not been any radical change in that period, though there may 
have been long periods of comparative rest. 
Nelson also gives a more detailed account of the origin and pro- 
gress of the sand-dunes at Elbow Bay, which I shall discuss under the 
geology. He states that it began on the land of a Mr. Lightbourne, 
in consequence of the cutting away the brush and disturbing the 
surface to build a fort and military road, about 1763. When he 
studied the dunes (1833) they were in very active progress and the 
sands had reached the height of 180 feet, but he observed that they 
were invariably stopped by a row of cedars, or by thickets of sage 
bush (Lantana). 
Nelson also gives an account of an important change in the con- 
figuration of Shelly Bay, since 1804, due to the cutting of the brush 
on the sand-hills for fuel, and thus starting the sand to drifting, 
until the seaside sand-hills were swept away and thus permitted the 
invasion of the sea. (See plate Ixviil, fig. 1.) 
“In 1810 Shelly Bay scarcely existed; what is now the mouth, 
was at that time a row of sand hills, and the road on the north side 
lay close within. Some free blacks who lived there, being in want of 
fuel, cut down the plants which kept these sand-hills in a solid state. 
Being no longer duly opposed, the sea quickly broke through, and 
now retains possession of the ground at least 100 yards in rear of the 
