ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 115 



would be fit to return our expected salute^ and 

 seemed g'lad when told that as a surve3dng' ship 

 we were exempted from saluting- the flag's of other 

 nations. A sea wall runs along- the face of the 

 town ; parallel with this is the principal street^ with 

 others at rig-ht ang-les extending up the hill. The 

 narrow streets are clean and well paved^ — the 

 houses^ g-enerally of one story^ are built of toug'h 

 g-rey trachyte. 



Almost every inch of available g-round upon the 

 island of Fayal has been turned to g'ood account : 

 Indian corn is the chief agricultural product, AVith 

 our usual bad fortune in this respect we were too late 

 for the g-rapes and the oranges had not yet come in. 

 The lower grounds are divided into small enclosures 

 by stone walls^ and subdivided by rows of a tall 

 stout reed {Arundo donax), resembling* sugar cane. 

 Although taxes and other burthens are heavy^ and 

 wages very low, yet to a mere visitor like myself 

 there appeared none of those occasional signs of 

 destitution which strike one in walking- throuo'h a 

 town at home, nor did I see a single beggar. 



In Fayal and Pico the most careless observer from 

 the anchorage of Horta can scarcely fail to associate 

 the number of smooth conical hills with former 

 volcanic activity ; and in looking over Capt. Yidal's 

 beautiful charts of the Azores, nearly all the 

 principal hills throughout the group are seen to 

 have their craters or caldciras. Fayal exhibits a fine 

 specimen of one of these caldeiras in the central and 



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