504 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



as headlands like those of las Kor- 

 eas and San Ursula. 



I never found in situ those masses 

 of columnar basaltic rock that are 

 so common in the island of Madei- 

 ra : but in the valley of las Espe- 

 ranzas, in the chain of hills to the 

 north-eastward of the town of San- 

 ta Cruz, they lie scattered about 

 in considerable numbers, and M. 

 Escolar told me that he had seen 

 strata of them to a considerable ex- 

 tent, exhibiting with precision the 

 columnar basaltic form ; the mo- 

 dern lavas of the Peak are all basal- 

 tic ; that of 1704 is decidedly so, as 

 well as that of 1798, though not 

 exhibiting any prismatic form. — 

 Prisms of basaltic lava are yet 

 found on the peak : I picked up 

 one, though there are no strata of 

 them to be met with. The metals 

 are rare, and afford but little variety ; 

 specular and micaceous iron, black 

 and grey manganese, are all that 

 have hitherto been discovered. The 

 salts that are so common on Vesu- 

 vius, are here seldom met with. 

 Augite is also rare, and mica and 

 leucite, ihough carefully sought af- 

 ter, have hitherto not been found. 

 In that part of the island between 

 Lagun-d and Tacaronte, where there 

 are few streams of lava, the soil is 

 evidently volcanic. I examined 

 many of the clods that were turned 

 up by the plough, and found them 

 all alike: they contained much 

 strong clay, with crystals of feld- 

 spar, olivine, aud specular iron, — 

 Dr. Gil Ian, who accompanied Mr. 

 Barrow and Sir G. Staunton, has 

 advanced an opinion, that between 

 Lacuna and Matanzos there are no 

 signs of volcanic formation. That 

 the currents of lava occur but sel- 

 dom is most true ; but the moun- 

 tains in the vicinity of Laguna are 



all volcanic, and one has a visible 

 crater ; besides, the assertion would 

 prove too much ; for it would go 

 to maintain that the Campagna 

 Felice, as well as the plains of Ca- 

 tania, were not created by the ash 

 and pumice eruption of Vesuvius 

 and ^tna. The bed of soil is here 

 very deep. I examined some ra- 

 vines that the rain had laid open to 

 the depth of 30 or 40 feet : the 

 strata were indurated at the bottom, 

 and resembled the tufa in the vici- 

 nity of Naples, and all contained 

 the substances mentioned above.— 

 This tufaceous character changes 

 as you ascend the hill that separates 

 Laguna from Santa Cruz ; the hill 

 itself, and the whole neighbourhood 

 of the latter city, is one continued 

 stream of lava, hardly at all decom- 

 posed, with little or no vegetation ; 

 but here and there in the hollows 

 some few stunted plants of the 

 aloe algarvensis, and the cytisus. 



Having given a general account 

 of the island, I shall now attempt 

 to describe the country of the Peak, 

 which mountain I ascended on the 

 JGth of September, 1810. The 

 road from Puerto Orotava to the 

 city of Orotava, is a gradual and 

 easy slope for three or four miles, 

 through A highly cultivated coun- 

 try. The soil is composed of vol- 

 canic ash and earth, and to the east- 

 ward of the town of Puerto di Oro- 

 tava are the remains of a recent 

 volcano, the crater and cone being 

 distinctly visihle. Leaving the 

 town of Oratava, after a steep as- 

 cent of about an hour through a 

 deep ravine, we quitted the culti- 

 vated part of the slope or valley, 

 and entered into a forest of ches- 

 nuts ; the trees are here of a large 

 size. This forest of chesnuts is 

 mixed with the erica arborea, or 



