264 



ISLAND LIFE 



PART II 



ent directions around Bermuda, and always showed a rapid 

 deepening of the sea to about 2,500 fathoms. This was 

 so remarkable, that in his reports to the Admiralty, Captain 

 Nares spoke of Bermuda as a solitary peak rising abruptly 

 from a base only 120 miles in diameter;" and in another 

 place as " an isolated peak rising abruptly from a very 

 small base." These expressions show that Bermuda is 

 looked upon as a typical example of an " oceanic peak " ; 

 and on examining the series of official reports of the 

 Challenger soundings, I can find no similar case, although 

 some coasts, both of continents and islands, descend more 

 abruptly. In order to show, therefore, what is the real 

 character of this peak, I have drawn a section of it on a 



BERMUDA 



55 MILES ><-l8 MILES->^ 46 MILES. 



SECTION OF BERMUDA AND ADJACENT SEA-BOTTOM. 



The figures show the depth in fathoms at fifty-five miles north and forty-six miles south 

 of the islands respectively. 



true scale from the soundings taken in a north and south 

 direction where the descent is steepest. It will be seen 

 that the slope is on both sides very easy, being 1 in 16 on 

 the south, and 1 in 19 on the north. The portion nearest 

 the islands will slope more rapidly, perhaps reaching in 

 places 1 in 10 ; but even this is not steeper than many 

 country roads in hilly countries, while the remainder would 

 be a hardly perceptible slope. Although generally very 

 low, some parts of these islands rise to 250 feet above the 

 sea-level, consisting of various kinds of limestone rock, 

 sometimes soft and friable, but often very hard and even 

 crystalline. It consists of beds which sometimes dip as 

 much as 30°, and which also show great contortions, so that 

 at first sight the islands appear to exhibit on a small scale the 

 phenomena of a disturbed Palaeozoic district. It has however 

 long" been known that these rocks are all due to the wind, 



