xX INTRODUCTION. 
burning bush (Poinciana pulcherrima), and the gaily colored leaves will 
be found to be merely the elongated petals of the flower. At the bend 
of the road round the harbor head, and immediately by the guard wall, 
in the dark, offensive looking mud, several mangrove trees grow, having 
attached to the roots and lower parts numbers of an oyster-looking shell 
(Perna ephippium). A little further on, on the rightthand side of the 
road, will be observed a fine tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica) standing 
in a neat little garden, while on the left, just beyond the tanks, runs 
along the wall side a hedge of the “snuff plant” (Buddleja americana). 
Paget Sand Hills.—This sterile locality, which is an extremely wild 
and lonely spot, is well worth a visit, and close examination also, for 
here can be seen the mode adopted by nature to form the Bermudas; 
viz, drifting sand gradually increasing its deposits and elevating the 
land; thereby overcoming cedar groves and cultivated ground, and in 
one place even the dwelling of man. 
On arriving at the northeast corner of the sand hills, the encroach- 
ment of the drifting sand will at once be perceived, as the mass, some 
10 feet in depth, is now gradually covering a small garden. According 
to the observations made by persons residing close to, this overwhelm- 
ing body has advanced over the cultivated land about 80 yards during 
the last twenty-five years. At the northeast corner of the hills will be 
seen, among some oleander trees near the top, the chimney of a cottage 
which formerly stood there, inhabited by a colored family. It is now 
wholly buried in the drifting sand, save the chimney, which alone rises 
above the mass to show the position of the structure. 
With the exception of a few irregular patches here and there, and the 
long reach of white sand gradually encroaching on the cultivated ground 
at the northeast corner, the whole slope, which some twenty years ago 
was almost wholly clear drift sand, with a few patches of bent grass 
in scattered spots upon it, is now clothed with wild plants and shrubs, 
as well as young cedars, which will no doubt in a few years attain goodly 
dimensions, and, with the aid of the universal underwood of sage-bush, 
put an end to the further encroachments of the sand drift. 
On the western side of the sand hills there is now a plateau of about 
half an acre, or perhaps more, of hardened drift sand, forming gradually 
into rock. On its face are cracks filling with drift sand, showing that 
the sun doubtless affects this hardened surface. Elevated protuberances 
of a foot or so in height, rise amid this plateau, having each a hole or 
depression at the center. These denote the sites in which cedar trees 
