AND PORTO SANTO. 45 



We hastened our descent, and I scarcely dared to stop a moment 

 to contemplate the new beauties which the setting sun shed over 

 the scenery, my guide was so impatient and apprehensive ; as it 

 was, we did not reach the margin of the torrent until dark. My 

 first cai-e was for my barometer, which being Fortin's, was rather 

 unwieldy in the hand, and, afraid to venture to step from stone to 

 stone with it (for the guide had enough to do to get the mule 

 through), I jumped into the water, and immediately repented 

 having done so, for though the depth was never above my waist, 

 its force was so great, that without the assistance of the guide and 

 the large stones, I must have been swept down by it. The 

 barometer, however, was uninjured, and we began to grope our 

 way in the dark, in the hope of discovering some light in one of 

 the cabins to make to ; sometimes rolling over one another, some- 

 times falling off a bank, and sometimes dragged down a partition 

 wall by the mule slipping off it. In short, there was but one thing 

 evident, that we had missed the path altogether, and my guide 

 began to cry and roar, accusing me of bringing him there to die, 

 wliile I sat down on a bank, determined to pass the night there 

 rather than break my shins any more, and holloa'd lustily. Our 

 united efforts, although in very different strains, (my guide perse- 

 severing in the bellowing part of the duet,) brought a peasant with 

 a torch to our assistance, who conducted us in about half an hour 

 to a filthy cabin of a single apartment, full of children, smoke, and 

 vermin. His wife, however, dried part of my clothes by the damp 

 twigs which were cracking on the earthy floor, with great care and 

 good nature, and placing a log of wood beside me, covered it with 

 excellent grapes, and a large cup of the pure juice of the tinta. 

 The husband was easily persuaded to provide torches, (made from 

 what appeared to me to be a festuca.) and guide our ascent out of 

 the Coural ; for I felt very anxious to judge of the effect of torch- 

 light on these sombre scenes, and I was fully recompensed, 



