6 TENERIFE. 



had a tremendous blaze, the Ijushes fizzing and crackh'ng loudly 

 in the flare, the flames shooting high up into the air so that 

 they were seen at Orotava, and even at Santa Cruz. The 

 ground froze on the surface around our tent during the night, 

 the thermometer standing at 30° F. just before sunrise. 



I walked from the camp to the Canadas — a remarkable 

 plain covered with scorice, and shut in on nearly all sides by 

 a perpendicular wall of basaltic cliff. From this plain of vast 

 extent the present terminal cone of the mountain rises. The 

 Canadas represents an ancient and much larger crater, in the 

 centre of the remnant of which the more modern smaller peak 

 has been thrown up. The bottom of the Canadas is dotted 

 over with the Retama. The ground was devoid of any other 

 vegetation. I was surprised to find that rabbits were tolerably 

 abundant in the Canadas. I saw several, but could not manage 

 to get a shot, as they were wary. They feed on the Retama. 

 They have no holes, but live in any chance crack or hole in 

 the rock or under the bushes ; hence I could not trap them, 

 though I took traps with me for the purpose. They are small. 

 I obtained in Orotava a stuffed specimen of a black variety 

 with a white spot on the forehead, which is occasionally found 

 Of birds in the Canadas I saw only a lark and a warbler 

 (Sj/via), and of lower animals I found only a Lepisma and a 

 Centipede {Scolopeudra), which were very abundant under the 

 blocks of pumice. 



The radiant heat of the sun was extremely powerful on the 

 arid plain of the Canadas. We had no guides, and our mule 

 drivers had left us. All refused to accompany us at this 

 season of the year to the top of the peak. We therefore 

 ascended only to the height of about 9,000 feet, the last 

 200 feet of which was climbed over snow. Here we watched 

 the often described struggles of the opposing winds, the trades 

 and anti-trades, as shown by the eddying and twisting of the 

 wreaths of cloud. 



In the neighbourhood of the camp at 6,500 feet, winter 

 was evidently still in force as far as the animals were con- 

 cerned. All the spiders and beetles I could find there were 

 under stones, apparently hibernating. I was astonished to 

 find at this altitude a Gecko ( Tarentola ?) also hibernating, 

 coiled up in a hole under a stone. This lizard has a long range 

 in altitude, since I found another specimen close to sea level. 



After two nights we moved our camp to a spring at about 

 3,500 feet altitude amongst the Arboreal Heath, on the verge 

 of the precipice bounding the ridge by which we had ascended. 

 Here it was much warmer at night, and at daybreak the tem- 

 perature was only as low as 45° F. But we hfid descended 



