60 CANARY ISLANDS. 



my head. In the mean time the rain had commenced fall- 

 ing and continued to fall until two o'clock, when it ceased 

 for a time, aifording delightful weather. The cold sharp 

 air had created a pretty active appetite which I eagerly 

 satiated near a limpid spring. Shortly after I resumed my 

 march and proceeded to a plain more than a mile in length, 

 and before I had travelled half of its length the rain recom- 

 menced falling with increased fury. As I was plodding 

 along I observed a high precipitous rock with a perpen- 

 dicular face, some parts of which were decomposed, leav- 

 ing small apertures where the swallows sometimes brood 

 their young. One of these holes exactly represented a 

 human profile, having a fine Grecian nose, a high forehead 

 and regular chin, each possessing its due proportions. 



About four o'clock I passed through El Portillo to El 

 Llano de Gaspas, which is elevated about 5000 feet above 

 the level of the ocean, and bears a profusio.i of the Genista 

 canariensis, a beautiful arborescent heath. Near its bor- 

 ders I observed a great number of impressions of ferns in 

 basaltes. (?) I continued my descent and reached this port 

 about dark. 



Yesterday I made a botanical excursion over the moun- 

 tain of Tygayga from Ycod del Alto to El Llano de Gas- 

 pas, returning through the Valley of Orotava. There can 

 be but few regions on the globe that afford more ample 

 resources to the botanist than this island. It contains in 

 itself several hundred species of plants, besides a great 

 number of exotics both from the torrid and the temperate 

 zones. In ascending from the sea-shores to the top of the 

 mountains, from July to October, one may examine a 

 great portion of the plants which it produces, and in almost 

 every stage of growth. 



During some of my more leisure hours I have often 

 taken pleasure in rambling to the Botanic Garden at Du- 

 rasno, where I saw a great number of foreign plants which 

 grow without the aid of human culture, and have as often 

 experienced emotions of regret when I beheld the neglect- 

 ful state into which it had fallen. It was first established 

 by the Marquis de Nava who had an idea that these islands 

 would afford a suitable place for naturalizing plants of the 

 East and West Indies, previous to their introduction into 



