THE ORTHOPTEBA IN THE CANARY ISLANDS. 177 



amono; the barren rocks. Caloptenus vidcanins was the only Orthopteron 

 noticed here. We caught a glimpse of one bird peculiar to the peak, 

 Friuc/illa tei/densis, a handsome slate-blue chaffinch, but saw no other 

 birds beyond an occasional kestrel at the lower levels, and a handsome 

 soaring Egyptian vulture. Above 7,000 feet, the path suddenly 

 becomes less steep as we enter the " cana'las." This is an extensive 

 plain, very flat, the bed of an enormous ancient crater, bounded by 

 vertical walls of basalt. 



The ground is a mass of small, rounded, soft buff or orange pebbles, 

 that afford springy and agreeable walking ; huge blocks of irregular 

 dark red trachytic lava lie haphazard over the plain, the only relief to 

 which is aftbrded by numerous green clumps of the "retawa^" Retama 

 rhoiloi-r/iizoides, the famous broom that grows here only, the only 

 vegetation above the 7,000 feet level. We rode for over an hour over 

 this plain, where the only insect life observed consisted of swarms of 

 Caloptenus vidcanius, and Sphinfioitotus caerulans, which was more 

 numerous here than on the coast itself. As we approached the huge 

 cone of the peak, standing like a solitary pyramid in the midst of the 

 plain, we climbed the Montana Blanca, a mass of pumice, and then bj'^ 

 a steep and winding path up the base of the cone, to a stone hut, Alta 

 Vista, built by an Englishman, to his eternal glory, on a spur between 

 two black lava streams, at 10,702 feet. Our guides brought up dead 

 " retama " wood, for the last plant was left behind at about 9,000 feet, 

 for fire to cook our frugal supper and make coffee to warm our frozen 

 bodies, for when the sun went down behind the peak and threw its 

 great black conical shadow on the peaks and clouds on the east, the 

 cold was biting and penetrating. 



Of the ascent to the summit of the cone itself, this is scarcely the 

 place to write, for of entomology we saw nothing. The crater is 

 a small cup-like depression, white with sulphur salts, with yellow 

 patches of crystalline sulphur, with puffs of sulphurous vapour oozing 

 out from the ground on all sides ; at our feet, the pink plain of the 

 " caiiadas " ; beyond, the jagged Cordillera of the island, the coastline 

 standing out sharp against the blue sea, twelve thousand feet below us, 

 like a map ; the gaping vent of Mount Chahorra, with black lava 

 streams all round, and last year's crater, like an open wound, bleeding 

 black lava, a sore upon the landscape ; then the Grand Canary on the 

 east, looking but a mile or two away, really over fifty miles distant ; 

 in the west, the green isles of Hierro and La Palma. Until the sun 

 was high, a keen wind numbed our hands, and we had been glad of 

 thick clothes and heavy overcoat in which to climb the last 2,000 feet. 

 When we found once more the welcome shelter of the stone hut, a 

 couple of glasses of steaming hot wine put fresh life into our frozen 

 veins. 



Upon returning to Tacoronte, we made an excursion to Bajamar, in 

 the hopes of finding the Anataelia ; Dr. Cabrera had described to me 

 the exact spot very carefully, and drawn a sketch map, so that there 

 was no doubt whatever about being on the correct spot ; it was a flat, 

 stony waste, and I spent four hours tearing my hands and crushing 

 my fingers by turning over stones ; my only bag was a male Forjicula 

 auricttlaria, one or two Aniwlabis annidipes, and one or two A. nwa-ima. 

 It was a great disappointment. I am uncertain whether to attribute 

 my want of success to sheer ill-luck, or to the possible great scarcity 



