STATHAM ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE SCILLY ISLES. 21 



in the ages of the past, there can be little doubt ; for no other hypo- 

 thesis could account for the finding of beds of siliceous sand on 

 the highest points, and those sheltered from the action of the wind. 

 I am aware that sand is to be found at moderate heights which has 

 undoubtedly been drifted up from below, and many portions of land 

 which were once productive have been rendered useless from this 

 cause. 



Troutbeck, in his history of the Islands, mentions the finding of 

 human bones interred in a spot of waste land called the " Neck of the 

 Pool," in St. Martin's, where upwards of twenty feet of sand had accu- 

 mulated in the course of time over the ground once used as a burial- 

 place. And in St. Mary's I noticed a similar accumulation of drift-sand 

 which, from the peculiarity of its appearance, and the shape it had 

 assumed, was one of the most interesting features of the island. It 

 was at the turn of the coast between Bar Point and Inisidgen Isle. 

 The sand forming Crow Bar, and extending very widely between St. 

 Mary's and St. Martin's, is at this point almost entirely composed of 

 minute fragments of white quartz, so that the waters seem to repose 

 upon a bed of porcelain, and present much the appearance of water 

 in a swimming-bath lined with Dutch tiles. Quantities of this beau- 

 tifully white sand have been blown by the strong cun-ents of wind 

 occasionally driving from the south-west, and have been deposited in 

 drifts around Bar Point, and up the adjoining steep for a considerable 

 distance. In the bright glare of a summer sun they look exactly like 

 snow-drifts, and as you walk over them and leave impressions of your 

 footsteps in the sand, the illusion, so far, is almost as complete as if you 

 were suddenly transplanted into an Arctic region, and were absolutely 

 treading upon snow. But the sand to which I have referred above as 

 existing in the several sections, either on the coast or inland, is of a 

 widely difierent character from this, or indeed from that of any other 

 of the sands now found upon the coasts. It is finer, more strictly 

 siliceous, and, from its compactness, evidently of more ancient deposi- 

 tion. I take it, therefore, that its presence upon points of the highest 

 range is decisive as to the former submergence of the land. But 

 there is another very curious geologic feature which will tell the same 

 tale. Immediately behind the guard-house, inside the gateway of the 

 garrison on the Hugh, is a kind of shallow cavern, now used as a place 



