Summit of the Peak ofTeneriffe, 33 



that awful mass which hangs over them. Each of them 

 was ornamented with a band of Hght clouds, which extended 

 several leagues in the north-east in a direction contrary to 

 that of the trade wind. The sun, now near the tropic, dif- 

 fused in tranquillity a most splendid light over the waters 

 of the ocean. The atmosphere was as pure and as trans- 

 parent as it was calm. My sight, however, was not suffi- 

 ciently strong to distinguish the islands of Fuerte -Ventura 

 and Lanzarotta, the profile of which was designed in the 

 horizon at the moment of sun-rise : but I saw distinctly 

 every thing around me; and, with the famous passage of 

 Plato in my hand, I was able to examine whether I wag 

 standing on the remains of the Atlantide. 



This research was naturally connected with the most ge- 

 neral observations ; but I soon found that it ought only to 

 be a consequence of them. I obtained in succession all the 

 proofs I could desire of the distinction which I had already 

 made of two orders of volcanic matters. The modern lava 

 has been thrown up amidst the ruins of an antient system 

 of ejected matter much older, the immense fragments of 

 which form the skeleton of the island, and sustain the emi- 

 nence on which the peak is raised. Their greatest ridges^ 

 turned towards the summit, rise to more than 300 toises 

 above all the new products. Their torn flanks exhibit a 

 series of thick strata, almost all declining towards the sea, 

 and composed alternately of ashes, volcanic sand, pumice 

 stone, and compact lava often prismatic, porous lava and sco- 

 riae. An innumerable quantity of new currents, which have 

 flowed down from the peak, or which have issued from itfi 

 sides, mark out a multitude of irregular farrows, which turn 

 round or pass along the edges of these antique masses, and 

 lose themselves in the sea on the western and northern side- 

 More than eighty craters are dispersed throughout these cur- 

 rents, and increase with their remains the confusion which 

 seems every where to prevail ; in a word, the subterranean 

 agents have not even respected the evidences and remains of 

 their antient energy ; they have pierced in many places the 

 shreds of the antient strata, and new ejected matters have 

 freely extended themselves over their declivities. 



This antient volcanic system extended much further be- 

 fore its destruction : several of its enormous fragments 

 insulated in the sea are a proof of it. It has been de- 

 stroyed by forces similar to those which have opened the 

 last valleys on the continents : this is proved by the form 

 a^id respective position of the ruins. But is its dc*truction 

 C 2 Xsi 



