GEOLOGY. 5 



inhabitants expected an attack from the French and Spa- 

 niards, to form a breastwork along the sand hills, which 

 then, as at Shelly Bay, skirted the coast. In doing so, they 

 'cut through the natural protection given by the sea-shrubs 

 and creepers, which usually abound in such places. From 

 that day the sand, supported by constant suppiies from the 

 sea, has steadily proceeded up the hUl to the very summit, 

 a height of about 180 feet* There is another encroach- 

 ment at Tucker's Town, said to have taken place about 

 sixty years ago, and has crossed the neck between Harring- 

 ton Sound and the sea ; but beyond this it does not seem 

 inclined to move. The sand has not been stopped, at the 

 eastern extremity of this beach, where the bluffs commence 

 by their very considerable declivity ; though it has been 

 most effectually, at the crest of the slope, by a natural fence 

 of sage bush (Lantana salmfolia), growing partly in the soil 

 and partly in the sand; which, as it ascended, seems to 

 have then rolled on with the seeds of this plant, and of de- 

 struction to its progress, in its own bosom. 



" The same operations appear to have occurred through- 

 out the sand tracts at and near Great Turtle Bay." 



Colonel Nelson says the whole of the Bermudas, (and, 

 perhaps, many of the older rocks,) may be called ' Organic 

 Formations,' as they present but one mass of animal re- 

 mains, in various stages of comminution and disintegration. 

 From the most compact rock to the very sand of the shore, 

 the materials of this group being universally fragments of 

 shells, corals, &c. The Turbo pica and Venus Pensylvanica, 

 are found imbedded in the rock in great quantities. We 



* It has long since crossed the brow of the hill. 



