4 NOTES OF A BOTANICAL TOUR 
twelve miles in cross diameters. Everywhere the coast is 
formed of precipitous cliffs, with the exception of Praya, the 
Bay of Horta, and its suburb Port Pym. The Bay is formed 
by a crescent line of hills varying from three hundred to 
something near a thousand feet of elevation, by guess. Be- 
yond the middle and highest part of this line of hills, and 
near to the centre of the island, is an elevated valley, several 
hundred feet above the sea-level, which is said to have derived 
its name of Flamingos, from having been the spot selected for 
their home by abody of Flemish settlers. Beyond this valley, 
again, the ground rises rapidly till we have passed the centre of 
the island, and approached within three or four miles of the 
coast, on the contrary side to that on which the Bay of Horta 
is situated, Here we suddenly come to the edge of the 
“ Caldeira,” a deep and nearly circular basin, once no doubt 
a boiling crater, now, as peaceful and lovely a scene as I ever 
beheld. It is scooped out, as it were, in the highest part of 
the island, near the north-west coast, is entirely surrounded 
by the mountain which constitutes its walls, and is conse- 
quently quite without any visible outlet for the streams which 
pour into it. From the edges of this basin, which I suppose 
to be between three and four thousand feet above the sea, the 
land falls in every direction towards the shore, terminating 
there abruptly in precipitous cliffs, against which the waves are 
constantly beating. Inthe Bay of Horta, and in a smaller bay 
at Port Pym, there are narrow belts of grey sand on the shore ; 
and the same sort of shore is seen at Praya, a couple of miles 
from Horta, on the other side. My botanizing lay in the 
neighbourhood of these sandy bays, and in walks from them 
to the mountains about the Caldeira. "Twice I descended into 
the Caldeira; and once I landed from a boat on the cliffs, 
several "in. north-east of the sands, and strolled about the 
neighbouring country fora few hours. My rambles thus 
covered about one third of the island, and were made chiefly 
in the month of June and beginning of July, with a few short 
walks about the town of Horta, in the end of May and middle 
of poem 
