338 Dr James Macaulay on the Physicai Geography^ 



island in September 1838. Observations were made at the 

 American Consul's house in the town of Funchal, while the 

 party were on the mountain. They remained on the summit 

 four hours, so that several simultaneous observations were ob- 

 tained. The result was, G181 feet above the lower station, 

 which is 5Q feet above the level of the sea ; or 0237 feet as 

 the height of the Peak. The Torrirhas, the Pico Orande, 

 and several other summits, are within a few hundred feet of 

 the same altitude. 



The mountain-range is in most places cut in the most irre- 

 gular manner, and in general to a great depth, by valleys and 

 ravines, which form the most striking portion of the scenery 

 of the island. The ridges by which the valleys are bounded, 

 are often of the most trifling breadth, standing up like 'vvtiHs 

 of partition between the abysses on either side of them. At 

 one place a road lies across a crest or dike of this sort, which 

 separates the Corral and the Serra d'Agoa, two of the most 

 magnificent valleys of the island. 



Although the island is thus in great part deeply intersected 

 by irregular ravines, there are one or two upland plains or 

 table-lands of considerable extent. That called the Paul de 

 Serra, in the west part of the island, is from nine to ten miles 

 in length, and three broad ; and its elevation is upwards of 

 5000 feet. It is a wild, uncultivated, and uninhabited tract, 

 during great part of the year veiled in mist and cloud. The 

 exterior parts are clothed with vaccinium and broom, and 

 other brushwood, but these become rarer in advancing towards 

 the interior and higher ground, and scarcely a moss relieves 

 with its verdure the rocky waste of the Campo Grrande. The 

 only objects met with are one or two untenanted huts, built 

 by a benevolent English merchant, as places of shelter for be- 

 wildered or benighted travellers. 



On the east side of the island is another upland plain, the 

 Serra de San Antonio. Its elevation is in general from 2000 

 to 3000 feet above the sea. In its aspect it is more like an 

 English heath. On the parts not occupied in cultivation, there 

 is a good turf, and abundance of heath and other indigenous 

 shrubs and trees. Of these the most remarkable are the tree- 

 heath, Erica arhorea^ and a large species of bilberry, the Vac- 

 cinium Madereme, The Erica grows to an astonishing size, 



