We have already stated that the historians of Cornwall, from Leland, Norden, and Carew, downwards, have all recorded the ancient tradition of a considerable portion of the Mount's bay having been formerly woodland. They have likewise handed down the concurrent tradition relative to the supposed tract of land which once connected the islands of Scilly with Cornwall. This tract, to which we are told was given the name of the _Lioness_ ("_the Silurian Lyonois_,") is said to have contained one hundred and forty parish churches, all of which were swept away by the resistless ocean! As to the Cornish word _Lethowstow_, or _Lioness_, by which the sea between Scilly and Cornwall is distinguished, we may observe, that the appropriation of such a term is sufficiently accounted for from the general violence and turbulence of the sea, just as the celebrated rock lying south of the channel between the Land's end and Scilly retains the name of the _Wolf_,[40] from the howling of the waves around it. Those who may wish for farther evidence upon this subject may consult _Mr. Boase's_ excellent memoir "On the submersion of part of the Mount's bay," published in the second volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society of Cornwall. We shall in this place make a short digression, in order to afford some account of the _Scilly Islands_, which are situated in a cluster about nine leagues, west by south, from the Land's end, and are distinctly visible from it. The SCILLY ISLANDS were called by the Greeks _Hesperides_ and _Capiterides_, or the _Tin Isles_, and by this name they are mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Solinus. They must, however, have undergone some material revolution since the age of these writers, for we fail in every attempt to reconcile their present state with the description which they have transmitted to us; and what is very unaccountable, not a vestige of any ancient mine can be discovered in the islands, except in one part of _Trescow_; and these remains are so limited, that they rather give an idea of an attempt at discovery, than of extensive and permanent mining. We are strongly inclined to believe that the Tin of those days came, in part at least, from the opposite coast of Saint Just, but of this we shall hereafter speak more fully. In the time of Strabo we learn that the number of these Islands did not exceed _ten_, whereas at present there are upwards of _one hundred and forty_, but of which the following only are inhabited, viz. _Saint Mary's_,_ Saint Agnes'_, _Saint Martin's_, _Trescow_, _Bryer_, and _Sampson_. It is curious that the name of the cluster should have been derived from one of the smallest of the islets (Scilly), whose surface does not exceed an acre. The number of inhabitants amounts to about two thousand, nearly half of which reside in Saint Mary's, which contains 1600 acres; it possesses three towns, a pier, a garrison, a custom house, and some monuments of British antiquity.