STATHAM — ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE SCILLY ISLES. 



17 



the higher portions being constituted by the two peninsulas above- 

 named ; and from the flat table- land of Newford Downs, an irregular 

 ridge stretches from Inisidgen Point in the north, forking off in two 

 branches to enclose the low marshy lands, about Carnfriars and Old 

 Town Forth on the southern coast. The highest point probably in 

 the whole island is the Telegraph upon Newford Down, which is 204 

 feet above mean water- mark ; but the Downs on the top of the Hugh, 

 and the ridge extending from Carn Thomas to Peninnis Head, cannot 

 be much lower than this. The isthmus joining the Hugh to the 

 mainland of St. Mary's is so low, that it has already been once or 

 twice swept over by huge waves during severe tempests, and much 

 injury done to the town ; it is even possible that on some future 

 occasion, should a strong breeze from the south or the south-west 

 prevail at the time of spring-tides, it may be again devastated in a 

 similar way, unless timely precautions be taken. From Permellin 

 Bay on the north, to Old Town Bay on the south, the ground lies so 

 low and exposed, that if the sinking of the land, already refeiTed to, 

 should continue, the sea will, at some distant period, break through 

 these two channels, and so divide the Hugh, on the one hand, and the 

 peninsula formed by the above-named ridge, on the other, from the 

 mainland of St. Mary's, resolving them into three separate islands. 



In the valuable notice of the Geology of the Scilly Isles, by Joseph 

 Carne, Esq., of Penzance, to which reference has already been slightly 

 made, it is stated, that at that time (1850) "no excavations worthy 

 of the names of quarries " existed, whereby to form a judgment of 

 the nature of the soil. Since that date, however, numerous openings 

 (some of them of considerable depth) have been made, chiefly for the 

 purpose of procuring ballast, or stone for building-purposes, and I was 

 enabled, therefore, by comparison of such welcome sections, to anive 

 at a fair estimate of the character of the several deposits to be found. 

 No greater mistake can be made than to imagine that these are 

 barren or unfruitful islands. Perhaps there is no land in the whole 

 empire, which is so fertile, or so profitable to the cultivators, as many 

 patches which might be pointed out in Scilly and in the adjoining 

 portions of the Cornish coast. While I was residing at St. Mary's, a 

 notice appeared, in one of the local newspapers, of the price which a 

 plot of ground, in the neighbourhood of St. Michael's Mount, Corn- 



VOL. n. u 



