Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 53: From May 1917, to May 1918 (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 53: From May 1917, to May 1918

Bermuda consists of a little group of islands of not more than twenty square miles of dry land, lying in latitude 32° 14' - 32° 23' north and longitude 64° 38' - 64° 53' west, about 700 miles southeast of New York, and 600 miles east of the coast of South Carolina. They are some three or four hundred miles south and east of the Gulf Stream. This situation accounts for the very marked uniformity as well as the mildness of the climate of the islands.

All of Bermuda now above sea level consists Of limestone, from a fine sand to hard crystalline rock. The lime comes from the various organisms inhabiting the water, in part animal but more largely vegetable; 1 many of these lime-producing algae are included in the following pages, but Lithothamnium and its allies, stony algae be longing to the Florideae, which furnish the larger part of the material, we have not been able to include here. The fine powder formed from the remains Of these various organisms is carried by the wind and Spread out over the ground. Rainwater dissolves a certain amount Of it, which when the water dries up is deposited and acts as a cement. Crystallization goes on more or less within the masses after formation, and so some parts become much harder than others. Erosion from rain or from the sea is continually going on, and its action being greater in the softer than in the harder parts, we have a great variety of fantastic forms along the shore, and many caves underground.

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