IN THE WESTERN AZORES. 403 
to repent this bad management; thirst becoming painfully 
excessive, under the united influence of heat and great mus- 
cular exertion, more especially to the three Englishmen. 
The natives bore this better than we did, but one of the four 
guides or porters, who were still ascending with us (two 
having been left in charge of our baggage at the resting- 
place), was at length fairly knocked up, and he returned 
without reaching the summit. 
The top of the Peak is a large hollow crater, out of which 
arises a smaller cone, of two or three hundred feet in alti- 
tude, produced by some eruption more recent than that 
which formed the chief crater itself; and the upper part of 
this little cone constitutes the pointed summit of the Peak, 
as seen from the ocean. Before reaching this crater, w 
lost the Calluna vulgaris entirely, but a few tufts of Thymus 
cespititius were still visible, and continued to be seen even 
to the summit of the little cone. The crater is now imper- 
fect, the sides having fallen down; but a considerable por- 
tion of the walls, too steep for the foot of man, still surround 
it with black and bare precipices. We crossed the crater, 
from which all snow and water had vanished, and gained 
the base of the small cone; and up this cone, nearly as 
steep as a sugar-loaf, we at last scrambled. I cannot say we 
walked up it, for hands were almost as serviceable ; as feet 
in effecting the ascent. 
The summit of the small cone, or extreme summit of the 
Peak, is again the edge of a crater, there being a basin-like 
depression within it. Inside this basin, or little crater, the 
ground was hot and steaming, and at the depth of a few 
inches below the surface of loose stones, it was too hot to 
allow of the hand being pressed against it. We remained 
on the cone two or three hours, and while exposed to the 
wind, by standing on the edge of the basin, we speedily 
became so chilled as to tremble with cold, though Fahren- 
heit’s thermometer indicated a temperature of 53°, the only 
instance in which I saw the thermometer so low during my 
stay about the islands. On descending into the small crater 
