12 



ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE SCILLY ISLES. 



By the Rev. Francis F. Statham, B.A., F.G.S., Incumbent of St. 

 Peters, Walworth. 



(Read hefore Section C. (Geology) of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, on Thursday, September 23, 1858.) 



The majority of persons, merely acquainted with the name and position 

 of the Scilly Isles, generally associate in their mind with the mention 

 of this group a cluster of rugged rocks, affording shelter and suste- 

 nance to a few poor fishermen and pilots, and famous for nothing else 

 than the frequent shipwrecks and naval disasters of which in times 

 past they have been the scene. From their isolated position, and their 

 comparative difficulty of access, they have been much less frequently 

 visited, and less accurately described, than many other of the beau- 

 tiful islets which surround our favoured shores; hence much mis- 

 apprehension prevails both as to their extent and their capabilities, 

 while very little indeed, of a scientific character, has been put on 

 record with reference to their varied attractions, zoological, botanical, 

 or geological."^ A visit of three weeks, during the past summer, 

 having enabled me to make a few cursory observations, I have 

 imagined that, in the absence of more definite knowledge, they may 

 prove interesting, or, at any rate, that they may serve to attract atten- 

 tion to the very curious phenomena which these islands present to 

 the student of geologic truth. The entire group consists, it is said, 

 of 145 rocks, or rocky islets, varying in size from the mere solitary 

 crag jutting out at low water from the surface of the ocean, to the Isle 

 of St. Mary, the largest, the most populous, and the most fertile of the 

 whole, which measures about three miles by two and a half miles, and 

 contains an estimated area of about 1,640 acres. The Scilly Islands lie 



* With the exception of an admirable paper read before the Geological Society 

 of Cornwall, in Sept., 1850, by Joseph Carne, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., &c., and a few 

 brief lines in one of the earlier volumes of the Transactions of that Society, I am 

 not aware of any notices of the geology of these islands which have been offered to 

 the pnbhc. 



