AT9 A. FE. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands. 67 
old road, traces of which are still visible. The Mangrove Swamp 
between the beach and the present road, was until then a garden.” 
The mangrove swamp referred to no longer exists. It has either 
filled up or there has been a farther encroachment of the sea, since 
1833. (See under Geology.) 
Without questioning the accuracy of Nelson’s statement in regard 
to this bay, it should be noted that on Norwood’s map of 1618-22, 
Shelly Bay is represented with very nearly its present size and form. 
This would indicate that the sand-hills described by Nelson had been 
formed subsequently to Norwood’s survey, and that being of loose 
sand, when they were destroyed, after 1810, the original outline of 
the bay was simply restored. This bay is a very shallow, open, and 
exposed cove, facing north, with a wide sand-beach, and such changes 
would not be unlikely. 
Probably the far greater activity of the sand-dunes in the time of 
the Greater Bermuda was due partly to more violent winds and 
larger areas of sea.beaches, but there may have been a total lack of 
sand-binding vegetation at that time. (See Geology.) 
The drifting sands have often buried and killed cedars and other 
trees in modern times, as described by Matthew Jones above. 
When this occurs the rain-water trickling down the sides of the 
trunk, and perhaps along the roots, carries with it dissolved lime- 
stone (calcium bicarbonate), which it deposits in its course, and thus 
hardens the sand into a crust around the trunks and roots of the 
trees, so that when the wood decays a hollow mould is left, which 
may then be filled with loose sand, producing a cast of the trunk or 
roots of the trees. 
Such casts, large and small, are common in the rocks of the islands 
at all levels, from below the sea to the highest hilltops, and they can 
be seen in actual process of formation. Many of them are thought 
to be the casts of stumps of palmettoes or some other palm tree, now 
extinct. (See under Geology and plates lxxxiv—vi.) 
The drifting sands sometimes blow into the sea and accumulate in 
such quantities, in sheltered harbors, as to fill them up to a great 
extent. Tucker’s Town harbor, originally called Stokes’ Bay, which 
is now very shallow, with extensive sand-flats, bare at low tide, is 
said to have been deep enough, at first, to admit merchant ships of 
moderate size. Its appearance indicates that it is still filling up, for 
the upper part of the beach merges directly into the still active 
sand-dunes of the shore. 
Mr. Nelson, also, says that before his time (1833) the channel at 
Crow Lane had been very much filled up, but this was probably by silt. 
