128 FROM MADEIRA TO THE BARRIER 



crew had a day's leave, half at a time. An excursion 

 was arranged to one of the numerous hotels that are 

 situated on the heights about the town. The ascent is 

 easily made by means of a funicular railway, and in 

 the course of the half -hour it takes to reach the top one 

 is able to get an idea of the luxuriant fertility of the 

 island. At the hotels one finds a good cuisine, and, 

 of course, still better wine. It is scarcely necessary to 

 add that we did full justice to both. 



For the descent a more primitive means of transport 

 was employed: we came down on sledges. It may be 

 startling to hear of sledging in Madeira, but I must 

 explain that the sledges had wooden runners, and that 

 the road was paved with a black stone that was very 

 smooth. We went at a creditable pace down the 

 steep inclines, each sledge being drawn or pushed by 

 three or four swarthy natives, who seemed to be 

 possessed of first-rate legs and lungs. 



It may be mentioned as a curiosity that the news- 

 papers of Funchal did not hesitate to connect our expedi- 

 tion with the South Pole. The native journalists had no 

 idea of the value of the startling piece of news they were 

 circulating. It was a canard invented on the supposi- 

 tion that when a Polar ship steers to the south, she 

 must, of course, be making for the South Pole. In this 

 case the canard happened to be true. Fortunately for 

 us, it did not fly beyond the shores of Madeira. 



By the afternoon of September 9 we could begin to 



