STATHAM — ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE SCILLT 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 Inisidgeu Point in the north, forking off in two 
branches to enclose the low marshy lauds, 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 20i 
feet above mean water-mark ; but the Downs on the top of the Hugh, 
and the ridge extending from Carn Thomas to Peniunis 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 exjjosed, that if the sinking of the laud, already referred 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 
Came, 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 arrive 
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 newspapei's, of the price which a 
plot of ground, in the neighbourhood of St. Michael's Mount, Corn- 
VOL. II. u 
