26 THE BERMUDA ISLANDS. 



volcanoes, such as the Bermudas may themselves be; the dis- 

 tance between the two groups is amply sufficient to allow of 

 both of them to slope gradually and independently to their 

 bases without necessitating the assumption of a connecting 

 backbone or ridge. The great depth of water, moreover, which 

 lies at no great distance to the west, and likewise in the east, 

 would seem to offer no support to the notion of such a sub- 

 merged ridge, which would necessarily have to be of limited 

 extent. Still, the shortness of the line cannot be looked upon 

 as strictly negative evidence, since abbreviated chains with 

 lofty summits are not absolutely unknown, even if they are 

 of exceptional occurrence. 



The main islands of the archipelago present approximately 

 identical features. Gently undulating hills, rising sometimes 

 with the symmetry of sugar-cones, alternate with broadly open 

 lowland, and pleasantly diversify the landscape. Along much 

 of the northern shores these elevations gracefully descend to 

 the water-line, where they form long reaches of sand-beach, 

 or terminate in abrupt escarpmentsj largely undercut, and 

 usually of inconsiderable height. Viewed from an eminence, 

 this succession of undulating hills and dales, or perhaps more 

 properly stated, " ups and downs," with their inclosed lagoons, 

 projecting promontories, and scattered islands and islets, forms 

 a most captivating picture, whose beauty is further enhanced 

 by the magnificent contrasts of color that are presented. To 

 the geologist the picture immediately suggests a region of sub- 

 mergence, or such as would be formed were the more interior 

 districts of Main Island suddenly depressed beneath the water. 



At certain spots, well shown on the northern and southern 

 shores of Harrington Sound, and on the Walsingham tract of 

 Castle Harbor, the water has cut vertical faces from the hill- 

 slopes, and constructed cliffs of majestic and picturesque ap- 

 pearance. The Abbott's Cliffs of Harrington Sound have an 

 altitude of probably not less than 50 or 60 feet. Along the 

 south shore a long line of almost continuous and imposing 

 cliffs faces the ocean. These receive the full force of the battling 



