CANARY ISLANDS. 57 



Las Colonias, which commands El Valle de las Calderas, 

 (the valley of craters), where there were to be seen, at the 

 same time, more than twenty conical hills with extinct 

 craters. About sunset, I came into the borders of San 

 Miguel, and passed the night with a family of Guanche 

 descent, who still retain similar habits and modes of life, 

 as those of their ancestors. I was quite amused with 

 many of their movements, particularly their mode of pre- 

 paring and eating the gofio. 



Early this morning, I bade adieu to my Guanche friends, 

 and pursued my journey over a somewhat fertile country, 

 producing an abundance of fig-trees, from which I made 

 a delicious breakfast of their ripe, purple fruit. About ten 

 o'clock, I reached this place, shortly after which, I procured 

 a comfortable room, and after refreshing myself, made an 

 excursion about a league and a half at the northward, to 

 some mineral springs. The first two that I came to, were 

 situated about eight feet apart, and both issued from a bed 

 of talcky slate. One of them, called by the natives, La 

 Agua Agria, (sour water), was about a foot in diameter, and 

 six inches deep, discharging a small quantity of acidulous 

 water highly charged with carbonic acid gas, with a tem- 

 perature of 62°. The other spring was about the same size, 

 with a temperature of GS*^, and is called La Agua Dulce, 

 (sweet water), having no other sensible properties, but 

 those of common water. From these two springs, I trav- 

 elled over a steep mountain at the distance of about half 

 of a league to the northward, where I found another spring, 

 situated on the eastern side of El Valle de Ucanca. It 

 discharged a considerable quantity of saline water, having 

 a very disagreeable acrid taste, with a temperature of 54°. 

 It issued from a stratum of whitish sand, overlaid with 

 large blocks of feldspathic lava, and is called by the natives, 

 La Agua Agria de Ucanca. 



Many of the natives of these islands have great faith in 

 the medicinal virtues of this spring, and assemble here at 

 certain seasons of the year, and pass several days together. 

 The drinking of the water is sometimes attended with the 

 most serious consequences, producing immediate death. 



On my return to this place, I passed through a forest of 

 pines, (Pinus canariensis. Lin.) many of which were 



