CANARY ISLANDS. 



85 



of the port of Garachico, which was at that time the finest 

 and the most frequented harbor in the island. Two cur- 

 rents of lava rushed down upon the town, and in a few 

 hours, not a building was left standing. This port was so 

 filled up that the lavas formed a promontory in the midst 

 of it. In the vicinity of the town, hills rose in the plain, 

 the springs became dry, and the rocks, shaken by frequent 

 earthquakes, remained naked, without vegetation, and with- 

 out mould. 



On the 1st of September, 1730, an awful catastrophe 

 took place on the island of Lanzarote. A new volcano 

 broke out at Temanfaya, the lavas of which, and the 

 earthquakes that accompanied the eruption, destroyed a 

 considerable number of villages. The shocks continued 

 about six years, and a greater portion of the inhabitants of 

 this island fled to Fuerteventura. During this eruption a 

 column of thick smoke was seen to issue from the sea, and 

 pyramidal rocks rose above its surface, and gradually aug- 

 menting, became a part of the island itself 



On the 9th of June, 1798, another lateral eruption of 

 the Peak broke out on the flanks of La Montana Colorado 

 or Chahorra, which lasted three months and six days. 

 The lavas were discharged by four mouths, placed in a 

 right line. When the lava had gained twenty or thirty 

 feet in height, it advanced three feet every hour, and rocks 

 were ejected from its mouth to the height of more than 

 3,000 feet. 



In the autumn of 1824, a second eruption in the island 

 of Lanzarote occurred on its northern side, and continued 

 intermittantly for nearly three months, and from one of 

 the craters a muddy saline water of boiling heat was 

 ejected to the height of thirty-six feet. Happily, the 

 injury caused by this eruption was very light. 



The lateral eruptions of the Peak of Teneriffe is a very 

 remarkable geological phenomenon, which contributes to 

 create mountains that are produced by the principal vol- 

 cano, and appear to be isolated. I observed that almost 

 all the extinct craters, except the principal one, that the 

 island affords, occur below the girdle of mountains that 

 surround the Peak. On the southern side of the island, in 

 El Valle de las Calderas, there are nearly forty conical 

 8 



