444 WILLIAM Christy's 



When once within the circuit of the Canadas, we had no 

 view but of the magnificent snowy cone, which did not, after 

 all, look so difficult to ascend as we had been led to suppose. 

 Indeed, had we come better prepared, some of us would 

 have been inclined to make the attempt, notwithstanding the 

 guides assured us that they would not undertake it for any 

 remuneration. This, however, was more from their excessive 

 dread of cold than from any danger to be apprehended in the 

 ascent. The Peak has been more than once ascended during 

 winter time, but it is extremely difficult to obtain guides at 

 that season, as they do not like passing the night on the 

 mountain, except in fine weather. Most of our party were 

 invalids, with affections of the lungs, and it would not have 

 been prudent to attempt an ascent, which must have been per- 

 formed on foot, attended with considerable exertion. At the 

 elevation we had attained, we rather expected to have felt, 

 in some degree, the effects of a much rarer atmosphere ; but 

 neither in riding or walking over the level surface of the 

 plain was it observed by any one. In climbing, however, an 

 isolated rock, about one hundred feet high, I distinctly felt a 

 difficulty of breathing, and a great sensation of weight, similar 

 to what has been so often described by those who have 

 ascended high mountains. Although in the immediate vicinity 

 of so large a body of ice and snow, we did not find the tempe- 

 rature cold. The thermometer in the shade stood at 50**, — in 

 the sun at 60°. Under the shade of some of the larger bushes 

 masses of needle-shaped crystals of ice were found, just below 

 the surface of the porous pumice-soil ; and in one place at the 

 foot of a large rock, a considerable bed of ice or frozen snow. 

 Having despatched a hearty luncheon, (not forgetting the health 

 of absent friends, in some excellent Teneriffe wine,) some of 

 the party went about to geologize. In the part of the Canadas 

 which we visited there seems to be but little variety, the sur- 

 face being pumice, and the only rocks consisting of a trachytic 

 lava, containing, in some cases, masses of very coarse obsidian. 

 Others of us amused ourselves with cutting pieces of the stems 

 of Cytisus nuhigenus, as relics of the Peak. The Peak having 

 been so often made the subject of barometrical observations, 

 and our journey being so hurried, we did not even bring a 

 barometer with us, and cannot therefore contribute any infor- 

 mation on the subject. Few observers seem exactly agreed 



