28 THE ATLANTIC. [chap. i. 



it was entirely detached. It is now connected with the land by 

 a narrow neck, composed chiefly of soft scoriae and pumice, in 

 the middle of which there juts up an abrupt mass of dark rock 

 called " Monte Queimada " (the burned mountain), formed part- 

 ly of stratified tufa of a dark chocolate color, and partly of 

 lumj)s of black lava, porous, and each with a large cavity in the 

 centre, which must have been ejected as volcanic bombs in a 

 glorious display of fire-works at some period beyond the rec- 

 ords of Agorean history, but late in the geological annals of the 

 islands. 



A long straggling street follows the curve of the bay, and 

 forks into two at the northern end ; and cross streets ending in 

 roads bounded by high sheltering walls, many of them white, 

 tastefully relieved with blue or gray simple frieze-like borders, 

 run up the slope into the country. The streets are narrow, 

 with heavy green verandas to the houses, and have a close feel ; 

 but the town is otherwise clean and tidy ; the houses are good, 

 in tlie ordinary Portuguese style ; and some of the convent 

 churches, though ordinary in their architecture, are large, and 

 even somewhat imposing. The church of the monastery occu- 

 pied by the Carmelites before the suppression of the religious 

 orders, overlooking the town, with its handsome facade sur- 

 mounted by three Moresque cupolas, is the most conspicuous 

 of these ; and the Jesuit church, built somewhat in the same 

 style, a little farther back from the town, is also rather effect- 

 ive. The suburbs abound in beautiful gardens ; but they are 

 surrounded by envious walls, and the unfortunate circumstances 

 of our visit prevented our making the acquaintance of their 

 possessors, of whose friendly hospitality we had heard much. 



Pico, facing the town at the opposite side of the nari'ow 

 strait, is at once a shelter to Tlorta and a glorious ornament. 

 The peak, a volcanic cone of 7613 feet in height, rivals Etna or 

 the Peak of Teneriffe in symmetry of form. The principal 

 cone terminates in a crater about 200 feet deep, and nearly in 



