512 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



btreain of lava are deeper and more 

 formidable ; the descent into them 

 was always painful and trouble- 

 some, often dangerous : in some 

 places we let ourselves down from 

 rock to rock. I can form no opi- 

 nion why there should be these 

 strange irregularities in the surface 

 of this lava ; in places it resembles 

 what sailors term the trough of the 

 sea, and I can compare it to no- 

 thing but as if the sea in a storm 

 had by some force become on a 

 sudden stationary, the waves re- 

 taining their swell. As we again 

 approached La Cueva there is a 

 singular steep valley, the depth of 

 which from its two walls cannot be 

 less than 100 to 150 feet, the lava 

 lying in broken ridges one upon the 

 other, similar to the masses of gra- 

 nite rock that time and decay have 

 tumbled down from the top of the 

 Alps ; and, except from the scoria, 

 or what Milton calls " the Fiery 

 Surge," they in no degree bear the 

 marks of having rolled as a stream 

 of liquid matter. This current, 

 like that of the eastward branch, has 

 no resemblance to any lavas I have 

 seen elswhere; it is hardly at all 

 decomposed, full of laminae of 

 feldspar, the fracture conchoidal. 



and the texture porphyritic ; th« 

 colour brown like that of the other 

 branch ; it is but slightly cellular, 

 and contains no extraneous sub- 

 stances. 



We descended the pumice hill 

 with great rapidity almost at a run, 

 and arrived at La Estancia in little 

 more than two hours. We then 

 mounted our mules, and following 

 the track by which we had ascend- 

 ed the preceding day, we reached 

 about four o'clock the country 

 house of our hospitable friend Mr. 

 Barry. 



The difficulties of this enter- 

 prise have been much exaggerated : 

 the ascent on foot is not a labour 

 of more than four hours at most, 

 and the whole undertaking not to 

 be compared in point of fatigue to 

 what the traveller undergoes who 

 visits the Alps. That the ascent 

 must be hazardous in a storm of 

 hail and snow there can be no 

 doubt, but to cross Salisbury plain 

 may sometimes be dangerous. Yet 

 stripped of poetical terrors, and di- 

 vested of the eloquent description 

 of some writers, there is perhaps 

 no mountain in Europe, the ascent 

 of which does not furnish more dif- 

 ficulties than the Peak of Teneriffe. 



MISCELLANIES. 



