Some Account of the Island of Teneriffe. 249 



di Tiede, but better known by the name of the Peak ofTeneriffe, 

 and which is the highest land not only in the island, but in al! 

 the Canaries; the mean of various observations making it 12,500 

 feet above the level of the sea. It is visible at a great distance ; 

 we saw it perfectly distinct thirty-four leagues off bv chronome- 

 trical observation, when it appeared rising like a cone from the 

 bed of the ocean ; and I have heard that it has been clearly di- 

 stinguished at a distance of 45 leagues. 



The rocks and strata of the island ofTeneriffe are wholly vol- 

 canic ; a long chain of mountains, which may be termed the 

 central chain, traverses the island from the foot of the second 

 region of the peak sloping down on the eastern, western, and 

 northern sides, to the sea. Towards the south, or more pro- 

 perly the SSW. the mountains are nearly perpendicular ; and, 

 though broken into ridges and occasionally separated by deep 

 ravines that are cut transversely as well as longitudinally, there 

 are none of those plains nor that gradual declination of strata, 

 that the south-eastern and north-western sides of the islantJ 

 exhibit. 



From the Barranca Scco, in the neighbourhood of Saufa Cruz, 

 to the northerly point called Piinta del Hidalgo, a series of steep 

 and abrupt mountains form headlands to the sea, separated from 

 the central chain by the valley of Lagima; these mountains are 

 rugged and peaked, drawn up, if the term may be used, in a co- 

 lumn, and are divided by deep ravines. The sides of these 

 mountains are steep, being in many places cut neailv perpendi- 

 cular to the horizon, and are all composed of lava generally of the 

 basaltic formation, mixed with beds of tufa and pumice. From 

 Hidalgo point to that of Teno, the most westerly point of the 

 island, the strata vary from beds of pumice and decomposed lava 

 and ash, which form the plains of Laguna Tkaronte and Songal, 

 to streams and currents and headlands of lava similar to those of 

 the Burranio Himdo, San Ursula, Las Horcas, and Las Guan- 

 chas. The slope from the central chain is here gradual, inter- 

 sected by ravines and streams of lava. The soil, famed for i^ts 

 fertility and which produces the Teneriffe wine, is composed of 

 lava and ash in a state of decomposition. Headlands, some of 

 them from two to three hundred feet in height, project into the 

 sea between San Ursida and Orotava, forming perpendicular 

 cliffs. At the western extremity of the island from Pu^Ha di 

 Teno to Puerto de los Ckristianos, the strata rise in a brokers 

 ridge to the Peak, the land ascending gradually from Puiita de 

 7e«o by a cliain of small peaked hills j the jtoiit itself being 

 very low and projecting as a promontory into the sea. The de- 

 clination of the strata is similar from the Peak to I'uerlo de los 

 Chrislianos. This south-westerly chain is broken into many 



abrupt 



