18 EXCURSIONS IN MADEIRA 



(which are so much regretted) and the banana ; — it is this feehng 

 which makes Madeira so deUghtful, independent of its beautiful 

 scenery, and the constancy and softness of its temperature. 



The country at the back, and sides of Funchal, presents the 

 broken outhne of a segment of a vast natural amphitheatre, of 

 basaltic peaks and mountains, — rising to 3800 ° feet behind the 

 Mount Church, which is the most striking edifice in this beautiful 

 landscape, and is elevated 1900 p feet above the sea, presenting the 

 most picturesque breaks and vistas, — intersected by ravines and 

 torrents, — and covered with undulating and rugged ridges, and 

 sheets of basalt, diverging from the more central heights, and de- 

 scending boldly to the sea, like the gigantic buttresses of some vast 

 interior mountain, and indicating so distinctly the courses of the 

 igneous streams which enveloped the island, that they seem as il 

 they had been arrested and indurated as they flowed, as an 

 evidence for future ages. The prodigious space of time this 

 originally undulating and furrowed surface has been worn by 

 heavy rains and torrents, explains the increased depths of the 

 ravines and ridges. I hastened to the western beach, to interro- 

 gate the natural section, which the attacks of the sea have wrought, 

 by gradually wearing away, and undermining the inclined plane, in 

 which the streams of basalt had descended to the water's edge. 

 I descended the ravine to the westward, and turning towards the 

 town from the beach, I found myself beside the chffs of tufa and 

 basalt, which had struck me so forcibly as I walked from the Loo 



"Oct. 31, B. 670.25, T. 15| C. T.d. 60 F. 15^0. 1 P.M., Sauss. Hyg. 98: 

 corresponding observations at the turret of Mr. Veitch's house in Funchal (154 feet 

 above the level of the sea), 764.35. T. 22|. T-d. 70| F., 21 1 C. Sauss. Hyg. 66,— 

 giving 3812 feet. 



p 717.10, T. 24k C. T.d. 69| P. 20.8 C. Sauss. Hyg. 62. 2i P.M., at turret 764. 

 28, T. 224 C. T.d. 70J F. 21 1 C. Sauss. Hyg. 65. Leslie's Hyg. 4,— giving 1916 

 feet. 



