36 THE ATLANTIC. [chap. i. 



The fruit is gathered with great care, the whole population, old 

 and young, assisting at the harvest, and bringing it down in 

 large baskets to the warehouses in the town. Each orange is 

 then wrapped separately in a dry maize leaf, and they are 

 packed in oblong wooden boxes, four to five hundred in the 

 box. They used to be packed in the large clumsy cases with 

 the bulging tops, so familiar in shops in England in the orange 

 season ; but the orange case has been entirely sujjerseded dur- 

 ing the last few years by the smaller box. About half a million 

 such boxes are exported yearly from San Miguel, almost all to 

 London. The prices vary greatly. Oranges of the best quality 

 l)ring upon the tree eight to fifteen shillings a thousand, accord- 

 ing to the state of the market ; and the expenses of gathering, 

 packing, harbor dues, and freight may come to one pound a 

 thousand more ; so that, counting the loss which with so perish- 

 able a commodity can not fail to be considerable, each St. Mi- 

 chael's orange of good quality delivered in London costs rather 

 more than a half-penny. The price increases enormously as the 

 season goes on. Several varieties are cultivated, and one vari- 

 ety ripens a comparatively small number of large fruit, without 

 seeds, toward the middle of April, which bring sometimes ten 

 times as much as the finest of the ordinary oranges in the height 

 of the season. 



At length, at an elevation of six hundred feet or so, the walls 

 of the quintas were passed, and we emerged into the open coun- 

 try. The island is divided into two somewhat unequal por- 

 tions, an eastern and a western. To the east we have high vol- 

 canic ridges, surrounding the picturesque valley of the Furnas, 

 and stretching, in rugged peaks and precipitous clefts, to the 

 extremity of the island. The western portion culminates in the 

 Caldeira (or cratei') of the Sete-Cidades, probably one of the 

 most striking pieces of volcanic scenery to be met with any- 

 where. 



Between the two there is a kind of neck of lower land, beds 



