GEOLOGY. 9 



the best advantage, when lit up by the refulgent rays of a 

 'Mudian'sun; and when the intense heats of summer prove 

 too great for the wearied frame, it is delightful, indeed, to 

 pay a visit to these cool, calm scenes of Nature. 



We were informed by Mr. Wood, that he believed his 

 property to be perfectly undermined by caverns^ and, doubt- 

 less, there are many in various parts of the islands which 

 remain for the investigation of future years. Col. Nelson, 

 in his interesting paper, says, the largest cavern now 

 known, and geologically speaking, the most instructive, is 

 Bassett's, near Somerset Bridge, which is said to extend for 

 more than a mile. He says it is comparatively recent, from 

 the fresh state of its surfaces, and the small quantity of 

 stalactite observable ; he accounts for the origin of this 

 cavern by the undermining of the substrata by the sea, the 

 waters of which lie in pools at the bottom ; " hence," says 

 the Colonel, "we may consider such caverns as hollows 

 produced by internal landslips, from the most normal of 

 which, to the simplest niche, there is every intermediate 

 point of transition." The most exquisite bijou of all the 

 Bermuda Caverns is that in Tucker's Island ; but it must 

 be seen by several well placed candles, from the little boat, 

 which must be launched into this beautiful cave. 



" To the unequal distribution of carbonate of lime in solu- 

 tion, which forms ordinary rock on the upper parts of a 

 section, or druses and breccias, as it filters through the 

 strata of red earth to the lower beds, or to the caverns, 

 where it crystallizes as stalagmite and stalactite," the 

 Colonel attributes not only the caverns and sandflows, but 

 the pinnacled rocks, almost equally common in the islands. 

 At Tobacco Bay, (St. George's,) is a most curious group. 



