24 JOjNES GEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE BERMUDAS. 



the deposit on Bald Head — on the irregularly alternating layers of 

 sub-stalagmitic rocks — on the uniformly sized and rounded patches, 

 apparently of sea shells and corals — on the abundance of land shells 

 throughout the mass — and finally on the absolute resemblance of 

 the calcareous casts to the stumps, roots, and branches of that kind 

 of vegetation which would grow on sand hillocks, I think there can 

 be no reasonable doubt, notwithstanding the different opinion of 

 some authors, that a true view of their origin has been given here." 



ISTow, I have every reason to believe that these branched bodies 

 found in sandstone cliffs at Bermuda, have origmated in the drift 

 sand covering shrubs or trees, when in a living state ; but from 

 observations I have made I consider their formation to have differed 

 from that of Darwin's specimens. Kain water coursing' down the 

 opening made by the protruding stems and branches, would cause 

 the sandy particles around to cement together, and form a hardened 

 crust, which, like the cylinder of the palmetto I have spoken of, 

 would, when the surrounding friable sandstone around was cleared 

 away, stand firm. I am led to suppose this course of formation, 

 on looking at a specimen which is hollowed at its centre, presenting 

 as it does an appearance that would indicate such a course. On the 

 rocky shore immediately beneath the cliffs from whence I obtained 

 these specimens, large masses of sandstone rock lie detached from 

 the cliffs, and these detached rocks as well as the cliffs, are perforated 

 with holes, doubtless the casts of branched bodies which have shaken 

 out from their original positions. 



Not far from where I procured these branched bodies, at the S. 

 E. corner of the Paget Sand Hills, cedar and other trees are now 

 being gradually buried under drifting sand ; and in years to come 

 when the mass around them has hardened into rock, their stems and 

 branches having wasted away, will doubtless leave behind branched 

 bodies similar to those I found in another position, and also to those 

 found by Darwin at King George's Sound, and the Cape of Good 

 Hope. In some cases the branches may have been formed 

 according to Darwin's hypothesis, by the entire decay of the whole 

 branch, root or stem, and the refilling of the cavity left by sand ; 

 but as I said before, from observing that in some cases the centre of 

 these Bermuda branches are hollowed, I must repeat again that I 

 consider a gradual hardening of the sandy particles immediately 



