NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 375 



earth running horizontally from end' to end, in a clear^and 

 distinct red line, of from two to three feet deep, uniformly 

 even on its upper and lower parts, and contrasting, in a 

 remarkable manner, with the pure white formation above 

 and below it. 



Deputy-Commissary Goldie, in a lecture delivered in 

 Hamilton on October ioth, 1867, stated that this vein 

 of red earth had recently been cut through by the Royal 

 Engineers, in sinking the well for the military works on 

 Prospect Hill. Its estimated level is sixty-five feet above 

 the sea, and it is overlaid by rock one hundred and thirty 

 feet in depth. 



Prospect Hill is about three miles to the eastward of 

 Hamilton ; and Mr. Goldie is of opinion that this red belt 

 underlies all the hills from Prospect to Harrington Sound. 



Arguing from these data, Mr. Goldie concludes that, 

 at sixty or seventy feet above the sea level, " this island " 

 was covered with soil. 



This also appears to be the opinion entertained by my 

 friend, Mr. John Mathew Jones, now President of the Insti- 

 tute of Natural Science, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, with 

 whom I have corresponded on the subject. 



Mr. Goldie does not, of course, intend to state in his 

 lecture that the Gulf Stream commenced its mighty career 

 subsequent to the formation of the Bermudas, or that no 

 migration of the feathered tribes existed, over sea, prior to 

 that event ; but merely to Imply that, when those islands 

 rose above the surface of the ocean, various seeds and land 

 birds found their way to them. Here we are perfectly of 

 accord. Not being one of those, however, who deem 

 " millions of centuries " requisite to the natural formation of 

 a group of islands similar to the Bermudas, I am not pre- 

 pared to accept the theory of an imbedded surface soil 

 extending through the length and breadth of those 

 islands. 



