a flask or two of brandy with us; and the latter article found most especial favour, not only in the padre's eyes, but in his mouth also; so that he seemed quite ready to undertake to keep us for a month, provided only we kept up a proper supply of that article ; and was most unwilling to part with us, so long as there seemed the slightest probability of a drop being left in the stores of any of the party.

There was a marriage, or a festival, or some other religious ceremony going on in the church which we visited, and we found a party of peasantry in holiday costume, who brought us a crown bedecked with flowers, which, as a great favour, we were expected to kiss, and to pay for the favour by depositing a pistareen or two in a box underneath.

The rain having ceased, although the mist remained, we mounted our horses to return, galloped across the valley, and then up a spur of the precipice by a different and easier path than the one we had come down by. Here I was again charmed by the wildness of the scene, and lagged behind to enjoy the sight of my companions winding up the heights above my head, each one in succession dimly appearing on some jutting crag, shrouded in mist; while the wild cries of the burruqueros sounded along the line, till their voices were muffled in the clouds. As the fog whirled around us, small openings were formed in it here and there, giving us lovely pictures of different parts of the valley-all the more lovely for the framing in which they were set. As I stopped upon one jutting crag, one of these openings just disclosed the church and the ground around it, with a group of the villagers, headed by the padre, watching our ascent. He took off his hat, and made a low bow; but I by no means appropriated the salutation to myself, rightly deeming that it was in truth but a reluctant adieu to the departing brandy-flasks.

Arrived at the comparatively level mountain-path above, we found a cold wind driving the mist into our faces; and in galloping along my horse very shortly cast a shoe. I dismounted, not over-pleased with the prospect of a long and solitary walk into Funchal; but the burruquero quickly pulled out. hammer and nails, seeming quite prepared for the accident, and in a short

time overtook me with the animal reshod, and in a condition to enable me to rejoin the cavalcade.

As we descended the brow of the mountain, we came suddenly to the base of the cloud in which we had been enveloped, and saw it stretching out like a ceiling a little above our heads for about a mile, throwing its shadow on a corresponding portion of the ground below, while beyond, the blue sea, with its shipping, the rocky shore, and the white buildings of Funchal, lay gleaming in the sun.

As we approached the town, we marshalled our forces into regular order, sent out videttes, and entered Funchal in military array, two and two, as much to the amusement of the Funchalese as our own diversion at their astonishment.

Those were happy days, my dear reader. We were young, healthy, and active; we had a comfortable home in our good ship, always holding out a refuge to us from danger, sickness, or want of money on shore. We, who had none of the responsibility of her guidance, had no care to harass, no ceremony to distract us. We cared little how wagged the rest of the worldpeace or war, storm or calm, were alike indifferent to us; and when our quarter's mess-bill was defrayed, we had no further anxiety even about money. Who can say as much in this perplexed and turmoiled life ashore?

That our ship was not only a refuge to us, but was ready to become one to any others, even in the most delicate distresses, was proved by an incident that occurred on board of her the day we left Madeira. A certain Dr. L., an Englishman, had become enamoured of, and engaged to, a fair Portuguese. The priestly authorities of the island, however, would not hear of a marriage between a Catholic and a heretic; and the English chaplain declined, from politic reasons, to celebrate it in their defiance. As soon, therefore, as our anchor had loosed its hold of Portuguese ground, and we were fairly under weigh, and thus fully within the marine territories of our own sovereign, and amenable to none but English laws, the bridal party came on board in boats, accompanied by an English clergyman, who happened to be staying on the island, and the ceremony was performed in the captain's poopcabin. I fear it was not a very merry

party, for old ocean did not even spare the bride, and both she and the bridesmaids were miserably sick before they got into the boat to go ashore again; and even the bridegroom exhibited a countenance which was anything but glowing with happiness," or radiant with joy," upon the occasion. We can only hope that they soon recovered themselves when they got ashore, and if sick, that they never were sorry afterwards.

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April 28th. On coming on deck this morning, we saw the eastern end of the island of Teneriffe on our starboard bow; and farther west, high up in the air in a clear space among the clouds, we caught sight of the famous peak. It was still eighty miles distant, and was scarcely to be distinguished from a cloud, except by its steadiness of outline, having the same light-grey colour, and shadowy, unsubstantial aspect, while a patch of snow on its northern side increased the resemblance.

In hauling up the towing net this morning, I got, among other things, a specimen of a porpita, a most delicately beautiful little animal. Its form is flat and circular, little more than a quarter of an inch in diameter, rather rounded above, and protuberant below. Its substance was a glassy gelatine, like that of a medusa, but rather more opake and fleshy. The upper surface showed a white, semi-transparent centre, passing gradually into a rich but delicate cornelian at the circuinference. It was divided into eight parts by radiating furrows that proceeded from a central pit, each part being partially subdivided by another slighter furrow, that increased towards the circumference. Small vessels proceeded from the centre to the circumference, exhibiting a darker shade than the rest, both in the white and the blue. Round the edge was a thin fringe of the same lovely blue, but rather darker, marked with little, straight vesicles that ended in a black tip, with a similar black tip between each, as if from a vesicle beneath. The under surface of the body was slightly conical, of a brownish white in the centre, but blue at the circumference, as on the upper side; and from the blue part proceeded a great number of tentaculæ, like those of a star-fish, but not apparently contractile to any great extent. These tentaculæ ended in three or four

granular knobs. One of them, under the microscope, seemed like a blue vessel, ending towards the base, enclosed in a white, gelatinous cover, which became blue towards the knobbed extremity; it had no apparent external orifice. Neither could I be certain that the animal itself had any orifice, either above or below, though, doubtless, there must have been one at least. I took also two small janthina. The bubbles, by means of which they floated, adhered pretty firmly to the animal, so that I had to take a pair of forceps to pinch them off. When removed, the animal fell to the bottom of the tumbler of sea water, in which I had placed it, and for several hours, at all events, showed no sign of renewing its bubble.

April 29th.-Anchored in the roads of Santa Cruz. This is a clear and pleasant-looking town of white houses, stretching along shore from some rugged and barren hills on the north, to a small, bare, and desert-looking plain on the south, at the back of which the rugged hills receded for a mile or two till they again struck out upon the coast. On consulting the English Con. sul he declared positively that it was utterly impossible to ascend the peak at that early season of the year, whereupon we made preparations for starting the next morning to attempt it. In the meantime we strolled through and about the town, saw Nelson's flags, of course, and sundry bright black eyes, which flashed suddenly upon us through little portholes in the windows as we passed along the streets. These take an unfortunate stranger at a most unfair advantage. The windows have glass only above, in the lower part the panes are of wood; and one of them, if not more, hangs upon hinges, opening outwards, like a ship's port. As the stranger strides along the paved streets, which in the daytime are pretty solitary, at every window up goes the port and out gleam the dark eyes full upon him as he passes, while, if he stop to return the salute, down goes the little door, and all is blank.

At six o'clock on the morning of the 30th, eight of us, headed by the captain, set out on horseback to cross the island to Orotava. We rode up paved causeways and rocky roads, in one part a mere track across a rough, cindery surface of lava, to the old and de

serted-looking town of Laguna. Grass grew in its silent streets, and in the great square, ornamented by huge gateways, decorated with armorial bearings carved in stone, leading to the houses of the old nobility; and we passed through the town without seeing more than half-a-dozen living beings, and one of these was a camel. Laguna is 1,200 or 1,400 feet above the sea, and stands on the edge of an undulating plain, surrounded by rocky hills. This plain, after heavy rain, is said to be sometimes converted into a shallow lake, whence the name of the town. It was now, however, well covered with fine crops of potatoes, wheat, maize, barley, rye, flax, and lupins. Having crossed it, we arrived at the ridges, which slope down on the north-western side of the island, and these we had to traverse obliquely on our road to Orotava. From the summit of one of these ridges we had a most magnificent view of the peak. From the centre of a great mass of rugged mountain rose the majestic cone, slightly truncated or indented at top, and crowned with another little cone, called the Piton. About the middle of the mountain was a beautiful cincture of white cloud, stretching out in level sheets, from which occasional fragments detached themselves, and sailed over our heads. Except these, the whole heavens were of the deepest and most unstained blue, as was the ocean on our right, towards which the ridges gradually descended, ending in an indented coast of black rocks, circled by a creaming belt of snow-white foam. Two or three dark pines stood statue-like on the crest of one of the ridges before us, while in the valleys were groves of date palms, fig trees, and orange trees, and the road was ornamented with rows of agave, and cactus, and trellises, on which the young vine leaves were just bursting into life. The whole scene was new and peculiar to me. There was none of the rich, luscious, green carpet, or leafy woods of our own islands here at home; on the contrary, the ground generally had a bare and almost barren aspect; but what a contrast and harmony of colour in its brown and yellow hues, shaded by green and black, the intense blue of

the sea and the sky, and the brilliant white of the foam, the cloud and the snow-capped summit of the peak; and what a stately majesty in the wide sweep of indented coast and broken mountain-side, with the noble cone culminating over all. Nothing, however, still struck me more forcibly than the clearness and transparency of the air, and the depth and intensity of the light and shade. To know what a blue sky and a glaring sunshine really are, it is absolutely necessary to quit these northern latitudes and to get some twenty degrees at least more directly under the sun.

After riding up to the picturesque Villa Orotava, on the mountain-side, peeping at the famous dragon-tree, and admiring the beauties of the lovely valley in which we found ourselves, we rode down, and took up our quarters at a rather indifferent posada at the lower Porto Orotava. The Vice-Consul here, of course, confirmed his chief in Santa Cruz as to the utter impossibility of our ascending the peak, but agreed at last to send for a guide. His name was Manuel Aguida, a fine, manlylooking Spaniard, with quiet, courteous manner, who threw no obstacles in our way, or attempted to enhance his services on account of the season, but simply stated what were the usual terms, and the amount of men, horses, and provisions that would be requisite. We accordingly begged him to provide these, and to be with us early in the morning.

May 1st.-In spite of every exertion it was half-past seven before we could get the horses packed, and make a fair start of it. The Vice-Consul was kind enough to add to our stores a gallon or two of wine of a superior description to any we could have purchased, and to come and see us off; but his last salutation was, "I wish you luck, but it is impossible you should succeed." Our cavalcade consisted of thirteen horses (five of which carried the provisions and water), and a man to each horse, which made our party twenty-one.

We passed between two small recent volcanic cones, called "Las montes des Frayles," the lava streams from which were as fresh as if they had just

cooled; and we then rode through a village called Hija, where, as it was Sunday morning, we found all the peasantry in holiday costume, saluting us, and wishing us a good journey. We then began to ascend by a narrow and rocky path, having on our left hand a precipitous ravine or dry torrent channel, one of those called a "barranco" by the Spaniards. In an hour and ahalf we had left the region of vines, and come on that of the firs and ferns, and broom and heath. We had hitherto seen a level and dense stratum of clouds above our heads, cutting off all view of the mountains above a certain definite height, and about ten o'clock we rode up into this cloud.

For about an hour we continued thus shrouded in mist, gradually ascending along a narrow winding path among rocks covered with small trees and bushes, when suddenly all vegetation began to disappear, and immediately afterwards we emerged into the clear upper sky with a blazing sunshine, and the peak towering before us over piles of brown rocks and yellow pumice and ashes. Streams and great masses of black lava wound among these hills of pumice and ashes, and we had a little steep climbing till we arrived at a place called the Canada, at the edge of the pumice plains, where we halted under the shade of some rocks to lunch. We here looked down on the surface of the clouds which encircled the hills below us, and stretched away in level, solid-looking, snowy plains into the distant horizon.

We then rode for about three miles across the pumice plains, a gently undulating stretch of ground which sloped very gradually up towards the foot of the cone that rises at their southwest corner. The plain is bounded by a line of craggy hills, which in places assumed the character of a perfect wall of rock, with a precipitous face towards the plain and a more gentle slope outside. I could see in some places that the beds composing this broken wall inclined (or dipped") steeply from the plain towards the sea. It struck me, not that these beds had been once horizontal, and had been subsequently elevated into their present inclined position, but that they were the remnants of the wall of a former cone, of immense magnitude, of which the present pumice plains formed the centre, and that the beds were only the layers

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VOL. XLIII.NO. CCLIII.

of ashes, pumice, and lava which had been originally deposited in that inclined position on the slope of the cone. The pumice plains themselves were covered with a light yellow pumice, in pieces of the size of a walnut down to the very finest powder, with here and there a crag of jutting rock, a brown or reddish lava appearing from underneath it. Clouds of dust rose under our horses' feet; no green thing was visible in any direction but a few bushes of a stunted kind of broom, and the whole scene so brown and arid, with the hot sun overhead and our long line of horse and foot painfully toiling over the undulations of the ground, seemed to me the very epitome of an African desert. As we approached the foot of the cone, we rose slowly on to some great buttresses of yellow pumice, that now began to be dotted with large blocks of black rock, a pitchstone porphyry passing into obsidian. These were of rudely spheroidal shape, cindery outside, but compact or crystalline within. They were from six to ten feet in diameter, and were generally split across by one or two great cracks, and lay sometimes a mere heap of broken fragments. I thought at the time that they were huge volcanic bombs that had been shot from the crater during some great eruption, and this is the expressed opinion of Humboldt; but Von Bach, with more probability, calls them great "tears" of lava that had become detached from one of the streams above, and rolled down the sides of the cone into the plains below. Just at this side of the cone a stream of black lava does descend from the summit of the cone, and ends suddenly among the light yellow pumice and ashes about half way down, as if it had become cooled and consolidated before it could quite complete its descent.

Passing beyond this, and still slowly climbing round the foot of the cone, our horses apparently almost spent by fatigue and want of water, we drew near to another great stream of lava, which had not only rushed down the sides of the cone, but had spread far and wide across that portion of the ground below, and formed, indeed, the termination of the pumice plains. Just before reaching this we turned to the right, and began at last slowly and painfully to climb the actual cone itself, by means of a little track that

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wound sharply up the piles of loose cinders and ashes.

At about half-past three, we at length arrived at our halting place, the "Estancia de los Ingleses." This is merely a group of huge masses of black rock, with a few loose stone walls, built here and there against them to keep off the wind. Under the shade of one of these great rocks was a hole, which in the summer was said to contain a spring of water, but which now held merely a cake of white ice, which we immediately proceeded to break up, in order to cool the parched mouths of the horses, and our own. The sun still felt hot even at this altitude of 10,000 feet, but in the shade the temperature was 45o. The air preserved this temperature even on the ground close to the ice, the surface of which was yet not at all moist. I conclude a thin stratum of dry cold air remained undisturbed in the hollow, just above the ice, which, even when broken, did not become damp till it was handled.

From the "Estancia" we could see the hills of the Gran Canaria, and the southern coast of that island, the sea line of the horizon stretching greatly beyond it; but the upper surface of the clouds occupied the greater space within the scope of our vision, and to me at least was one of the most interesting sights.

At sunset we were treated to a grand effect in watching the March of the Shadow of the Peak. We were on the eastern slope of the cone, and just as the sun set behind it, the sharplydefined shadow of the little summitpiton was projected first on the pumice hills below us, then stole rapidly across the plains, clomb more slowly up their encircling walls of rock, over which it disappeared, while the swelling outline of the lower cone, darkening all it covered, grew rapidly upwards in ever-increasing dimension.

In a few minutes more we observed the shadow of the little Piton traversing the surface of the clouds below, hastening forwards to the east, and followed by the great pyramidal shadow of the whole Mountain of the Peak, stretching many a league over land, and sea, and cloud, till it gradually became lost in the distant and now darkening horizon. In the north the clouds were very magnificent, as there their level plains were broken into

huge foaming billows of a snowy whiteness.

It now suddenly became quite dark, and the stars shone out more brilliantly than on a frosty night at home; but dinner being declared ready by Aguida (who acted as maitre d'hotel), we turned our attention to something more substantial than the atmosphere; and then, getting two fires lighted-one for ourselves, and the other for the guides -and having previously collected all the old bushes of broom we could find to keep them going, we wrapped ourselves in our blankets, and each party began a round of songs.

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The song of the guides appeared to extemporaneous, as each took it up alternately, and sang a verse, to which all united in the same chorus, the words of which were supposed by some of us who had a smattering of Spanish to be something about "to-morrow morning." This was often accompanied by shouts of laughter; and, like the man in the play, we thought "they must be speaking of us, for they laughed consumedly." It was a wild scene- the huge black rocks, from among the crevices of which peeped out here and there a spectral horse's head-the two fires, with their blanketclad groups of revellers the shouts, the laughter, and the songs. while around, above, and below us was the steep slope of the mountain-side with its rocks and lava-torrents, its foot enveloped in the clouds, and its lone head high among the stars.

About two in the morning, Aguida roused us, and we found a bright moon shining, by whose light we were to continue our climb; so, after swallowing a piece of bread and a cup of coffee, we set off. We each had a stout ironshod pole in our hand, which we found very useful; and for about an hour and a-quarter we toiled up the steep slope of pumice; and even then, as we looked back, seemed but little above the fires of the Estancia, where we could hear the voices of the "machuchos" we had left behind. We here found ourselves at the edge of a great lava-stream, and now had to climb over this. This was not one solid mass, as I had expected to find a stream of lava, but a heap of loose, disconnected, rudely-spheroidal blocks of cindery lava, of all sizes, from that of a man's head up to six or eight feet in diameter. These blocks often tottered