254 
ISLAND LIFE. 
[part II. 
does not exceed fifty square miles. They are surrounded by reefs, 
some at a distance of thirty miles from the main group ; and 
the discovery of a layer of earth with remains of cedar-trees 
forty-eight feet below the present high-water mark shows that 
the islands have once been more extensive and probably included 
MAP OF BERMUDA AND THE AMERICAN COAST. 
Note. — The light tint indicates.sea less than 1.000 fathoms deep. 
The dark tint more than 1,000 fathoms deep. 
The figures show the depth in fathoms. 
the whole area now occupied by shoals and reefs. 1 Immediately 
beyond these reefs, however, extends a very deep ocean, while 
about 450 miles distant in a south-east direction, the deepest part 
1 Nature, Yol. VI. p. 262, “ Becent Observations in the Bermudas,” by 
Mr. J. Matthew Jones. 
