AND PORTO SANTO. 31 



green of the grass, so constantly moistened by the vicinity of the 

 clouds, but from the young shoots of erica ; and where the masses 

 of tufa, and superincumbent soil had fallen from the heights, the 

 roots of the laurels and arborescent heaths were left bare, twisted 

 like serpents. I passed a small natural excavation, which disclosed 

 several strata of tufa and scoriae, which seemed to be the beacon 

 of my guide, who remained there ; and in a few minutes after, I 

 reached the summit of the peak of Ariero, amidst a thick mist, 

 like small rain, which entirely deprived me of the view I had 

 promised myself The temperature, in consequence of a strong- 

 north wind, was lowered to 43", being 28° less than I had ex- 

 perienced three hours before, in the shade at Funchal ; the peak 

 is 5446 feet above the sea''. The juncus glaums abounds on the 

 highest parts of this eastern side of the island ; the constant 

 moisture of the air, perhaps, accounts for its luxurious growth, so 

 far removed from any stream. 



I started the next day for the Coural das Freiras, apprehensive, 

 that the wished-for arrival of a vessel for Sierra Leone, might not 

 leave me the time to do so. The road from Funchal to Camera de 

 Lobos, (where you quit the sea, and ascend to the interior of the 

 island) is unusually bare of vegetation. The crustaceous lichens 

 form the principal feature, with here and there an euphorbia, a chei- 

 ranthus, scattered patches of the sida carpinifolia\ and a few fig- 



■^ Although southerly winds are announced by the fall, and northerly, by the rising 

 of the barometer, wlien in the lower regions of the atmosphere, yet the inverse seems 

 to happen in the upper. M. Ramond, when measuring elevated peaks, has observed 

 gusts of wind from the north, lower the mercury by raising the column of air, whilst 

 those from the south produced the contrary effect for the moment. These oscillations 

 extended from two to three tenths of a millimetre, even when the winds were by no 

 means strong. — Memoires sur la Formule Barometrique de la Mecanique Celeste, p. 53. 



■^ I have been told, that the poorer inhabitants drink the infusion of its leaves as tea, 

 but the known properties of the sida are so contrary to those of all other plants used 

 as tea, that I am inclined to give very little credit to it. The principal plants sub- 



