BERMUDAS, a group of islands in the Atlantic ocean, form ing a British colony, in 32°15 N. and 64°5o W., about 58om. E. by S. from Cape Hatteras on the American coast. The group, consisting of small islands and reefs (which mark the extreme northern range of the coral-building polyps), is of oval form, measuring 22m. from N.E. to S.W. ; the area about 20 square miles. The largest is Great Bermuda, or Main Island, 14m. long and about a mile in average width, enclosing on the east Harring ton sound, and on the west the Great and Little sounds, thickly studded with islets, and protected on the north by the islands of Watford, Boaz, Ireland and Somerset. The rest of the group, St. George, Paget, Smith, St. David, Cooper, Nonsuch, etc., lie north east of Main Island and form a semicircle round Castle Har bour. The fringing Gays which encircle the islands, especially on the north and west, leave a few fairly wide, deep passages.
The Bermudas are composed of aeolian limestones (see BAHAMAS) forming irregular hills of some 200-250 feet. These limestones consist chiefly of blown shell-dust, very irregu larly stratified, as is usually the case with such deposits. When freshly cut the rock is soft, but the action of the sea covers it with a hard crust and often destroys stratification. The surface is often irregularly honeycombed. The reefs are ridges of aeolian limestone plastered over with thin layers of corals and other calcareous organisms. The very remarkable "serpuline atolls" are encrusted with convoluted tubes of serpulae and Vermetus, to gether with barnacles, mussels, nullipores, corallines and some true encrusting corals. They probably rest upon foundations of aeolian rock. The Bermudas were formerly much more ex tensive than now and they may possibly be upon the summit of a submerged volcano. There are evidences of small oscillations of levels, but none of great elevation or depression.
The surface soil is a friable red earth, which is also found in ochreous strata throughout the limestone. It is generally mixed with vegetable matter and coral sand. There are no streams or wells of fresh water, which is supplied only by rain collected and stored in tanks. The climate is mild and healthy. The maximum temperature is about 87°, the minimum
the mean annual 7o°. The islands attract a large number of visitors annually from America. Vegetation is very rapid, and the soil is clad in a mantle of almost perpetual verdure. The commonest tree is the so-called "Bermuda-cedar," really a species of juniper, which furnished timber for small vessels. The wood is strongly scented. Some inlets are fringed with mangrove; the prickly pear grows luxuriantly in the most barren districts ; and sage bush springs up profusely. Citron, sour orange, lemon and lime grew wild ; but apple and peach do not thrive. The loquat, introduced from China, grows well. The mild climate assists the growth of esculent plants and roots; and a considerable trade is carried on with New York and Canada, in onions, early potatoes, tomatoes and beetroot, together with lily bulbs and cut flowers. A fine quality of arrowroot was produced. The castor-oil plant and aloe, tobacco, coffee, indigo and cotton are also grown. Few sheep or oxen are reared in the colony; meat, as well as bread and most vegetables, comes from America. Indigenous mammals are very few, and the only rep tiles are a small lizard and the green turtle. Birds, of about ten species, abound. Insects are comparatively few, but ants swarm destructively in the heat.
Fish are plentiful and the whale fishery was once an important in dustry, but fisheries as a whole are not developed.
tion.—St. George on St. George
Island, founded c. 1613 as
ers Town, was the capital till
the senate and courts of justice were removed by Sir James
burn to the centrally-situated Hamilton. Hamilton, on the inner
part of the Great sound, founded 179o, incorporated 1793, had a
population of 3,259 in 193o. Ireland Island has the British
Admiralty dockyard and naval establishment. The harbour of
St. George can accommodate a vast fleet; but, till deepened by
blasting, the entrance was too narrow. The Bermudas became an
important naval and coaling station in 1869, when a large iron
dry dock was towed across the Atlantic and placed in a secure
position in St. George, while, owing to their important strategic position in mid-Atlantic, the British Government maintains a strong garrison. The Bermudas are a Crown colony. The governor is assisted by an executive council of six crown nominees, a legis lative council of nine similarly appointed, and a representative assembly of 36 members, of whom four are returned by each of nine parishes. The currency, formerly 12 shillings to the pound sterling, was assimilated to that of England in 1842. The Eng lish language is universal. The colony is in the bishopric of New foundland. In 1847 an educational board was established, and there are numerous schools ; attendance is compulsory, but none of the schools are free. Government scholarships enable youths to be educated to compete for Rhodes scholarships at Oxford. The revenue has increased during the last ten years from about £roo,000 to £248,50o in 1925. In that year imports were valued at £1,325,041 and exports at f 166,020, the annual averages since 1916 being about L1,200,000 and £2 5 2,00o respectively. The local population was estimated at 29,116 in 1933, about half the num ber being white. The disparity between imports and exports may be explained by the expenditure of American tourists in the islands and by the reactions of Prohibition in the United States.
History.—The discovery of the Bermudas resulted from the shipwreck of Juan. Bermudez, a Spaniard on a voyage from Spain to Cuba with a cargo of hogs, early in the 16th century. Henry May, an Englishman, was wrecked there in 1593, and Sir George Somers in 1609. Sir George, from whom the islands took the al ternative name of Somers Islands, was the first to establish a settlement. In 1612 the Bermudas were granted to an offshoot of the Virginia Company of 120 persons, 6o of whom, under Henry More, proceeded to the islands. The first staple export was to bacco, but the industry declined in the i8th century. In 1726 Bishop George Berkeley chose the Bermudas as the seat of his projected missionary establishment. The first newspaper, the Bermuda Gazette, was published in 1784.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Godet, Bermuda, its History, Geology, Climate, etc. Bibliography.--Godet, Bermuda, its History, Geology, Climate, etc. (186o) ; Lefroy, Discovery and Settlement of the Bermudas
A. Heilprin, Bermuda Islands (Philadelphia, 1889) ; Cole, Bermuda (Boston, 1907; bibl.) ; W. B. Hayward, Bermuda, Past and Present (1923) . For geology see A. Agassiz, "Visit to the Bermudas in March 1894," Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard, vol. xxvi. No. 2
A. E. Verrill, "Notes on the Geology of the Bermudas," Amer. Journ. Sci. ser. 4, vol. ix. (1900) , pp.
; "The Bermuda Islands ; Their Scenery, etc.," Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts and Sci. vol. xi. pt. 2 (1901 02) . See also the Canadian Gazette Year Book and the Bermuda Pocket Almanack. (O.)
