AND PORTO SANTO. 59 



scarcely possible to conceive such a regular succession of aqueous 

 deposits and volcanic injections ; to admit (which we must also do) 

 that the sea has been 1600 feet above its present level in this part 

 is a minor difficulty, compared to the former, especially since the 

 ingenious hypothesis, founded on the unequal expansibihty of land 

 and water under an alteration of temperature. But we must re- 

 collect, that no change in the level of the ocean, nor even a forcible 

 elevation of the island from beneath the water, is required in 

 admitting that the basalt is of igneous origin, (as its streams and 

 nature indicate) and has flowed from a crater opened through the 

 transition Hmestone found at S. Vicente. 



A fall of water, of one shallow, and two deep stages, descends 

 the whole depth of the western end of the chfF, which adjoins the 

 Fazenda dos Padres, perhaps the finest mahnsey plantation in the 

 island, and created entirely by an avalanche of tufa, which, falling 

 from a height of upwards of 1200 feet, has lodged and spread at 

 the bottom of the cUff. 



The house and vineyards are only accessible by water, to those 

 who shudder, as most persons do, at the daring route of the la- 

 bomers, who ascend and descend the chfF by a succession of 

 simple stakes driven into, and projecting from it. These ava- 

 lanches, which are not unfrequent, (and which have occurred from 

 lesser heights without much injuring the property) with one or 

 two sliding plantations, occasion curious suits in the courts of 

 Madeira ; the one party insisting that he must follow his grounds 

 and habitations, the other, whose less valuable grounds have been 

 covered or enlarged by the accident, pleading, I presume, " cujus 

 est solum, ejus est coelum." 



Ascending the rocks between the Fort and Fraya bay, we find, 

 close on their brink, about 80 feet above the sea, and but a few 

 yards inland, an eUiptical, funnel-shaped depression of 520 feet in 

 circumference, and about 35 feet deep. The greater axis bears 



I2 



