66 SOME BIRDS OF THE CANARY ISLANDS 



attain an almost fabulous size. The healthiness of the 

 surroundings of this, the highest situated village in 

 Tenerife, or the example of great age set by its pines, 

 is not without its effect upon some of the inhabitants of 

 the district, and it was a touching incident that the old 

 priest who had ministered to the people of Vilaflor for 

 so long should have been taken from them only a few- 

 months ago, when he lacked but three years of the 

 hundred. 



A long journey is necessary in order to reach 

 Vilaflor from Orotava, and the traveller must follow 

 the stony path that leads past the few straggling villages 

 on the lower slopes of the mountains, passing through 

 a thousand feet of drenching cloud, where everything 

 is green, and the peasants live for some portion of the 

 year in a genuine Scotch mist ; then out of the mist 

 into the bright sunshine, the yellow bloom of the 

 genesta marking one altitude ; the white flowered retama 

 another. WHien the retama zone is reached, the 

 Cafiadas are not far distant. 



Above the cloud-belt which so often surrounds the 

 Peak of Tenerife, shutting out all view of the mountain 

 from the coast, lies an extensive level plain, composed 

 entirely of small pieces of pumice stone ; this plain 

 extends for many miles, at an altitude of some seven 

 thousand feet above the sea, constituting what is 

 generally known as the Canadas, and rising out of 

 these same Canadas in every conceivable shape, are 

 jagged pieces of black lava. Then again, with almost 

 startling distinctness as viewed through the dry, clear 

 atmosphere, towers the Peak of Tenerife. It is May, 

 and the only signs of winter snow are the pencil streaks 



