and the Canary Islands, 77 



whole summer, supplies the towns Sia Cruz, Orotava, and La- 

 guna with ice, which to them is a necessary of life. In the af- 

 ternoon, we hastened down the declivity, to reach Orotava be- 

 fore dark. The guides and mule-drivers sung strophes of alter- 

 nate rhyme upon the adventures of the day, beat time with 

 sticks upon a cane ; and to mark the rhythm, kept a leaden 

 bullet rolling in a wine-glass. At eight in the evening, we 

 once more reached Orotava. 



On the 27th May, we again began our ascent towards the 

 peak ; but missing the way, after arriving at the plain of the 

 Retama, we went round the circuit of the peak, beneath the per- 

 pendicular rocks of which it is composed, spent a few hours 

 more in a deep gulf in which these retama bushes (Spartium 

 nubigenum) blossom magnificently in countless numbers, 

 climbed the rocks at the Pass of Guaxara, and at dark arrived 

 at the village of Chasna, which stands at the height of 4013 

 feet upon the southern declivity of the island. At this place, 

 we, for the first time, passed through a wood of lofty Canary 

 pines (Pinus canariensis). We also observed it to be more ex- 

 tensive than when we, on another morning, had ascended to an 

 agreeable but weak acid mineral spring, which is the only one 

 upon the island, and which issues forth from rocks of white 

 tuffa. Chasna itself, by far the highest village on the island, 

 was very pleasantly surrounded with a great abundance of pear 

 and plum trees, and with almond-trees, growing on the neigh- 

 bouring heights. Here we might almost have expected mea- 

 dows and European plants. In the evening, we reached Chiu- 

 ama, lying far below ; and were there received with polite cor- 

 diality by Teniente Don Antonio Gonsalez. He conducted us 

 in a westerly direction to a defile very steep on all sides, and at 

 no great distance, in which were many Guanches caves among 

 the high volcanic rocks, that were inaccessible without a ladder. 

 Bones of mummies, thrown forth and destroyed, were lying like 

 little hillocks upon the ground. We stopped in Rio ; on the 

 following day visited the Barancos of the neighbourhood, las 

 Virgas and Granadilla, and returned in the evening to Chinama. 



Here Don Antonio first let us taste the honey which the bees 

 upon the Peak prepare from the retama. Every village in 

 the neighbourhood, Chasna, Chinama, Granadilla, and Rio, in 



