12 Teneriffe. [Jan., 
posed, with the pores on the surface free from crystals, which had 
no doubt fallen out, as I always found them internally. 
We kept gradually ascending ; in crossing the Barranca Haya, 
we were rather annoyed by the vapour of the clouds condensing in 
our clothes and hair, producing to our feelings a degree of cold 
much greater than the 39°°5 indicated by our thermometer; the 
wet-bulb thermometer proved that the atmosphere was saturated 
with moisture. The sensible cold was increased by a strong local 
current of wind from the west-by-south, although the wind below 
and above was blowing from N.N.W. 
At a quarter to eight a.m. we entered the Llanos de Gaspar 
(the plains of Gaspar), and left the clouds considerably below us ; 
here the vegetation became very scanty ; almost the only plants on 
the surface were patches of Canarian thyme. This desolate spot 
was, however, particularly interesting, as it was evident that a 
considerable part of the waterspout which did so much damage in 
November, 1826, had burst here, cutting the surface into a vast 
number of ravines, some of them of great depth. From the 
appearance of the surface, the columns of water which fell must 
have been very numerous, as in ten or twelve different places the 
lava was cut into deep trenches, some fifteen and twenty feet deep, 
with the soil which had been between completely washed away ; 
many of these channels frequently conveyed into one, which 
formed at last a destructive and overwhelming ravine, in some 
places 75 feet deep and a quarter of a mile wide; the body of 
water swept away part of the town of Garrachica in the valley of 
Orotava, numerous houses and vineyards, with a battery and its 
guns at the Port Orotava. When I saw the ravine, which had been 
cut through numerous layers of compact lava, I thought it had 
been the work of ages instead of only part of a single night. 
At half-past nine a.m. we entered the last zone of vegetation, 
the surface was covered with white lapilli, and protruding masses 
of trachyte and porphyritic lava, occasionally mixed with pumice. 
The vegetation for some time had been gradually becoming less 
luxuriant and more scanty, till here it was reduced to the Codeso, 
and large tufts of mountain broom. The dry, close, and ligneous 
formation of its leaves enables it to support the immense difference 
of climate it has to undergo every four-and-twenty hours. Durmg 
the summer season, in the daytime, the intensity of solar radiation 
is almost insupportable, for it is sometimes as high as 210° F.; 
on the contrary, the nights are extremely cold; the dryness 
is excessive, as I have observed the dew point as great as 45° 
to 50°, and to rise again in a few minutes to 24° from a passing 
cloud. 
At ten o'clock we came in view of the foot of the Peak, but I 
was much disappointed when I was informed that we had still a two 
