44 C A X A R Y ISLANDS. 



brighter tlian I ever saw them before. Below my feet, 

 over Las Canadas, there was a sea of white clouds appar- 

 ently rolling against the mountain. The tops of the 

 lesser hills were jutting out of the clouds resembling small 

 islands. Temperature of the atmosphere at three o'clock 

 in the morning, 48°. 



At nine o'clock, I took my leave of M. Despreau and 

 descended to the mountain of Tygayga where I was envel- 

 oped in a thick stratum of clouds so dense, that I could 

 scarcely distinguish one object from another. The retama 

 and other shrubs were shedding water so profusely, that it 

 run down the mountain in continued rills. This may lead 

 us to inquire whether the marvellous " fountain tree " of 

 Hierro did not derive its moisture from a similar cause ? 

 I cannot learn, only by tradition, that such a tree ever 

 existed there ; although there is no doubt, that in the early 

 part of the last century, a tree was blown down and 

 destroyed there, from the branches of which, a small degree 

 of moisture used to trickle, but so far from being an inhe- 

 rent property of the tree, that the same effect would have 

 been produced by any other like tree, if placed at the 

 mouth of a ravine where a succession of clouds and mists 

 are constantly rushing. The tree in question undoubtedly, 

 was placed in a similar situation, and by the attraction of 

 cohesion, accumulated drops of water which it shed, and 

 gave rise to the story of the *' vegetable spring," so zeal- 

 ously perused and repeated by the marvellous. 



In passing through the clouds, I observed a phenome- 

 non which has often been remarked on high mountains. 

 " Small currents of air chased trains of clouds with unequal 

 velocity, and in opposite directions, and bore the appear- 

 ance of streamlets of water in rapid motion, in all directions, 

 amidst a great mass of stagnant waters. The causes of 

 this partial motion of the clouds, are probably very various ; 

 we may suppose it to rise from some impulsion at a great 

 distance; fi-om the slight inequalities of the soil, which 

 reflect in a greater or less degree, the radiant heat ; from 

 a difference of temperature kept up by some chemical 

 action, or perhaps from a strong electric charge of the vesi- 

 cular vapors." * 



* Humboldt. 



