CHAP. I.] BERMUDAS TO MADEIRA. 27 



often be seen in the peasants' houses forming partitions, cup- 

 boards, or light odds and ends of furniture. These tall reed 

 liedges, at this season bearing large, feathery flower - heads on 

 tliis year's shoots, while the stems of last year, now becoming 

 hard and woody, bear on side branches a crop of small leaves 

 like those of the bamboo, form quite a peculiar feature in the 

 landscape. The Caldeira itself, the father of the family of cra- 

 ters, and evidently the centre of the lirst and most powerful 

 outburst of volcanic action, remained invisible to us — shrouded 

 all day under a thick canopy of cloud. 



In the evening we steamed into the channel between Fayal 

 and Pico, and anchored in the roadstead of Ilorta, the chief 

 town of Fayal. Here we were visited by the Portuguese offi- 

 cer of health, who, while making strict inquiries as to the pres- 

 ence of contagious disease in the ports which we had previous- 

 ly visited, said nothing about the health of his own town ; and 

 it was with extreme chagrin that we learned from the British 

 vice-consul, who came on board shortly afterward, that Ilorta 

 was suffering from an epidemic of small-pox, which had latter- 

 ly been rather severe, especially among children. Under these 

 circumstances Captain Nares judged it imprudent to give gen- 

 eral leave, and on that evening and on the following morning 

 one or two of us only took a rapid run through the town and 

 its immediate neighborhood, to gain such a hasty impression as 

 we might of its general effect. 



Ilorta is a pretty little town of ten thousand inhabitants, sit- 

 uated in a deep bay which opens to the westward, and looks 

 straight across to the island of Pico, distant about four miles. 

 The bay is bounded on the north by a bold lava promontory, 

 Ponta Espalamaca ; and on the south by a very remarkable iso- 

 lated crater, with one-half of its bounding wall broken down, 

 and allowing the sea to enter, called Monte da Guia, a very 

 prominent object when entering the bay from the southward. 

 Monte da Guia is almost an island, and apparently at one time 



