STATHAM — ON THE GEOLOGY OP THE SCILLY ISLES. 21 
iu 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 iu 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 luisidgen 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 currents 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 different 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 usied as a place 
