BURIED LANDS. 44 
been and is one of the grinding mills of the gods, and that dura- 
tion or extent of time is only a conception of man. It is said to 
require under favorable circumstances a thousand years to make 
five perpendicular fect of coral limestone, and that coral rock 
exists in the Pacific ocean two thousand feet thick. In contrast 
with such almost infinite durations, well may the Chinese phil- 
osophers and sages compare the life of man with the little insig- 
nificant span of the mcasuring worm. 
The important part taken by the Bahama shell fish in the 
formation of the banks and rocks of the Bahamas is indicated 
by their very great abundance. Major-General Nelson states 
that: “‘at Six Hills (Caicos Group) the mass of Conch Shells 
(Strombus gigas) is so great and sufficiently cemented together 
as to form not only a rock, but an island several hundred feet in 
length.” 
While the highest land in the Bahamas is 230 feet above the 
sea, generally the hills on the larger islands are much under 100 
feet in height, and from 10 to 50 feet on the islets. They abound 
with ‘pit holes” and ‘‘rock marshes.” The water upon the 
lower flats is brackish and rises and falls, though not contem- 
poraneously with the tide, or ata uniform rate. There are many 
ordinary and mangrove swamps, small and shallow, morc or less 
connected with the-sea. So far as there is any soil it is found in 
the little pockets in the rocks, and is scant and fertile. There 
are also large arcas of ‘‘ pine barrens” where the pine and the 
palm flourish side by side—the north and the south to this 
extent meeting and mingling harmoniously in the floral world. 
Lakes of salt or brackish water mirror the heavens and add a 
new charm to the landscape upon many of the islands. Andrus 
alone boasts a fresh water lake and afew small out-flowing fresh 
water streams. The rocks are all calcareous, soft and easily 
worked below the surface, white and dazzling when first quar- 
