it to Bermuda.

Respecting Bermuda, as we have seen, he had much correspondence. "This
island," he now said, "ever since the discovery of the opening in the
reefs by Captain Hurd, has been deemed of much naval importance, and
plans were formed by the highest military authorities for its defence. A
naval arsenal also has been designed for the accommodation of a large
establishment of ships of war. Distant islands, however, cannot be
defended on principles which would be the most judicious at home--by the
erection of forts in all quarters that could be occupied by an enemy. It
is obvious that, under the circumstances of Bermuda, troops cannot be
spared from the parent State permanently to garrison the multitude of
forts which, on such a principle of defence, would be requisite. If they
could, the expense would be enormous, and therefore I cannot dismiss
this subject without an expression of my satisfaction at the
intelligence I lately received that such extravagant and unavailing
system of fortification has been suspended. In my opinion it is a great
error to imagine that naval officers are unfit to be consulted
respecting maritime defences; had it not been for so mistaken a notion
many hundreds of thousands of pounds, perhaps I might say a million,
might have been saved. I unhesitatingly assert that gunboats not only
would suffice, but are by far the most available, and infinitely the
cheapest defensive force amongst the rocks around the island of Bermuda.
The coloured population of this island are a fine race, incomparably
superior to the generality of the coloured population in the West
Indies. They are accustomed to navigate in their commercial vessels:
their lives are almost spent in boats, and no better crews could be got
for the defence of their own island than they would prove themselves to
be."

"The existence of this solitary island so far from the continent of
North America," we further read in Lord Dundonald's journal, "is a
circumstance meriting the attention of geologists, as well as the
uniform material of which it is composed. It is all of a calcareous
nature, but differing in condition from any of the other islands of the
same substance. The strata are exposed in the perpendicular cliffs on
the sea-shore in numerous precipices, from a hundred feet to minor
altitudes, and are composed either of the most minute shells, or of
parts of shells so triturated that they scarcely indicate their origin.
In some p