The single freshwater stream, Pembroke Canal, is now so polluted, it has little to offer as a natural habitat. But it would be a mistake to ignore freshwater habitats because diminutive as they are, they offer a wealth of fascinating life . . . Although the extent of freshwater wetlands is now limited in Bermuda, this was not always the case. There have been times when they were extensive and more varied than they are today. While human activities are mostly to blame for the decline in wetlands-filling, draining and polluting wetlands has occurred since the island's colonisation – natural events, too, have taken their toll.

– Martin L.H. Thomas, The Natural History of Bermuda, 2004

As the beginning of our anniversary year is but a few weeks away, it may be of interest to reflect on what Bermuda looked like, before we had our destructive way with it, especially in the wetlands.

There is no reason to wax idyllic about the place, for no one surely questions that the island was an earthly paradise, on a par with some of the Pacific islands, for which, say, Tahiti, was once the poster girl. The fishhook-shaped land would have been covered with cedar and palmetto groves, with a few other endemic trees, shrubs, grasses and ferns as highlights.

In spring, the purple Bermudiana would have carpeted open grasslands, while the native prickly pear defended the coastlines and beaches. The ocean and inland seas would have teemed with a multitude of fishes, many species of which we have managed largely to exterminate to go with our daily loaves. Birds there would have been aplenty, especially in the fresh water and brackish wetlands, known in the vernacular as "de ponds"; most of those creatures have also been banished or erased.

The full extent of Bermuda's aboriginal wetlands is not known, as we have much altered the landscape since the first permanent human settlement of the island began in July 1612. However, the recent acquisition by the Bermuda Maritime Museum from the Hydrographic Office of a digital copy of the spectacular survey of the land and reefs of Bermuda by Captain Thomas Hurd will add much to our knowledge of the wetlands, when it is fully examined by biologists and compared with evidence on the ground and other researched data.

Previously, it has been stated in this column that the Hurd map contains perhaps the most important topographical data on the layout of Bermuda, including its roads, houses and farms in existence by the 1790s. There is simply no other such detailed map of the entire island until that time and none other would be produced until the Savage survey of 1899. The same categorical assertion may also be made with regard to the natural environment of Bermuda, in particular with regard to the wetlands that had yet by 1797 to be infilled by "taking de trash to de pond", a cultural trait begun in the first months of settlement with the dumping of rubbish into the inlet that is now subsumed under the Market Square in St. George's.

In this article, we will briefly dip our toes into the historical nature of Bermuda's wetlands with the hope that some scientist will carry out a detailed comparison of what existed about 1800 and what is left today. In some instances, your toes will get wet, but in others, they will get dirty and polluted.

By the Hurd survey, Somerset appears to be the parish most lacking in wetlands, though one wonders about the flat plain around the old Naval Playing Field, bordered by Arnold's and The Market Place groceries stores. An excavation or coring for samples is needed there to determine whether or not it was a swampland in prehistory.

Moving eastwards, the parish of Southampton had at least four lakes or wetlands, the largest of which is now an industrial and housing estate, a golf driving range and a boar farm, to the east of which was a smaller pond. Evan's Pond to the north and Seymour's Pond to the south, the latter in the corner of the junction between Middle and South Roads, were the other two major wetlands of Southampton.

Warwick Parish had two major wetlands, the western of which is now occupied by the Post Office, a large playing field, a gas station, a school playing field and other imposed features. Warwick Pond to the east of the emasculated Khyber Pass yet provides a home for some birds and wetland vegetation, though like much of Bermuda, Mexican pepper appears to dominate the adjacent uplands and encroaches upon the pond.

To the north of what were once "the traffic lights" and to the east of the parish church, Paget Marsh will still wet your toes and was partly restored some years ago, although, one must say, apparently at the expense of archaeological material excavated without record in the restoration. In other words, most of the "reclaimed" wetlands contain some of Bermuda's major archaeological heritage resources and that fact should taken into consideration when wetlands are restored. Taking the trash to the pond created archaeological dumps and treasures, if you will.

As may be seen in the Hurd map, Pembroke Parish contained the largest wetlands, today comprising the horticultural waste mountain of volcanic proportions (and occasionally, propensities) and the flat lands extending west to Belco and beyond to Mill Creek: at least five major bodies of water and a stream emptying to the sea comprised that natural treasure, now called "Marsh Folly".

Devonshire still has its Marsh on the northern side of the parish, but Smith's Parish has lost the wetlands now occupied in part by the strip development at the bottom of Collector's Hill, an area of ponds that possibly stretched into Devonshire and Paget along the South Road. Several major lakes were to be found on the southern side of Smith's and Hamilton Parish, ending with Trott's Pond to the east, on the edge of Tucker's Town.

Finally in the far east, Coney Island and Ferry Reach also had ponds, but the eastern part of St. George's Island contained no such wetlands in 1797, for it is likely that the marsh of Somers Garden was already full of trash by that time.

The extent of most of these precious wetlands is shown on the detailed excerpts from the Hurd Survey. It remains for the natural scientists to tell us from that evidence what exactly has been lost and of what survives, which waters are healthy enough for you to dip your toes, let alone for other species to thrive in the "diminutive" legacy of wetlands that we will have inherited by our 400th anniversary next year.

* * *

Dr. Edward Harris, MBE, JP, FSA, Bermudian, is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. This article represents his opinions and not necessarily those of persons associated with the Museum. Comments can be sent to drharrislogic.bm or by telephone to 799-5480.