TENERIFFE. 7 



or under the bushes ; hence I could not trap them, though I took 

 traps with me for the purpose. They are small. I obtained in 

 Orotava a stuffed specimen of a black variety with a white spot 

 on the forehead, which is occasionally found. Of birds in the 

 Canadas I saw only a lark and a warbler (Sylvia), and of lower 

 animals I found only a Lepisma and a Centipede (Scolopendra) 

 which were very abundant under the blocks of pumice. 



The radiant heat of the sun was extremely powerful on the 

 arid plain of the Canadas. We had no guides, and our mule 

 drivers had left us. All refused to accompany us at this season 

 of the year to the top of the peak. We therefore ascended only 

 to a height of about 9,000 feet, the last 200 feet of which was 

 chmbed over snow. Here we watched the often described 

 struggles of the opposing winds, the trades and anti-trades, 

 as shown by the eddying and twisting of the wreaths of cloud. 



In the neighbourhood of the camp at 6,500 feet, winter was 

 evidently still in force as far as the animals were concerned. 

 All the spiders and beetles I could find there were under stones, 

 apparently hybernating. I was astonished to find at tins altitude 

 a Gecko (Tarentola f) also hybernating, coiled up in a hole 

 under a stone. This lizard has a long range in altitude, since I 

 found another specimen close to sea level. 



After two nights we moved our camp to a spring at about 

 3,500 feet altitude amongst the Arboreal Heath, on the verge of 

 the precipice bounding the ridge by which we had ascended. 

 Here it was much warmer at night, and at daybreak the tem- 

 perature was only as low as 45° F. But we had descended 

 within the cloud-bank and had heavy rain, and should not have 

 succeeded in lighting a fire for cooking had we not been helped 

 by a mountain shepherd who was evidently well accustomed to 

 setting a fire going in the rain, and soon got our kettle to boil. 

 He was a fine powerful man and very honest and obliging, 

 as were all the peasants with whom we came in contact. 

 Stimulated with a shilling he turned collector, and soon returned 

 with boxes full of snails and beetles. The steep side of the 

 ridge overlooking Orotava is covered with a luxuriant vegetation 

 of laurels, heaths, and ferns, and is very different in this respect 

 from the comparatively barren surface of the slope above. A 



