Some Account of the Island of Terieriffe. 259 



lava, which being so much more extensive than any that have 

 flowed from more recent eruptions have led some persons to 

 deny the former to be the effects of a central fire. That all the 

 island of Teneriffe was volcanically produced, no man who ex- 

 amines it can have any doubt: and though the smaUness of the 

 existing crater of the Peak may lead one to imagine that it alone 

 could not be the effective cause of all the pheenomena, yet the in- 

 numerable volcanoes on all sides of the island, the appearance of 

 Las Cunales, and its elevation, are able to account for the ex- 

 tent of the streams and beds of lava, and of the deposits of tufa 

 and pumice, of which the island is composed. Having no data 

 to proceed upon but what is given by the measurement of the 

 eye, it is not easy to determine the magnitude of the cone at its 

 base; one may say at a venture, it is about three miles in cir- 

 cumference, though towards the SSW the descent is much more 

 abrupt, and tlie plain from which the cone springs not percepti- 

 ble. The view from the summit is stupendous; we could plainly 

 discover the whole form of the island, and we made out distinctly 

 three or four of tlie islands, which together are called the Ca- 

 naries ; we could not however see Lancerotte or Fuerteventur.Oi 

 though we were told that other travellers had distinguished 

 them all. 



From this spot the central chain of mountains that runs from 

 south-west to north-east is easily to be distinguished. These 

 with the succession of fertile and v/oody valleys, commencing 

 from San Ursula and ending at Las Horcas, with the long line 

 of precipitous lava rocks that lay on the riglit of our ascent, and 

 which traverse that part of the island, running from cast to west 

 from their point of de])arture at the Canales to where they end 

 in an abrupt headland on the coast, with their forests and villages 

 and vineyards, the port with the shipping in the roads, the towns 

 of Orotava with their spires glittering as the morning sun burst 

 upon them, afforded a cheerful contrast to the streams of lava, 

 the mounds of ash and pumice, and the sulphurated rock on 

 which we had taken, our seat. The sensation of extreme height 

 was in fact one of the most extraordinary I ever felt ; and though 

 I did not find the pain in my chest arising from the rarity of 

 the atmosphere, near so acute as on the mountains of Switzer- 

 land, yet there was a keenness in the air independent of the cold 

 that created no small uneasiness in the lungs. Tire respiration 

 became short and quick, and repeated halts were found necessary. 

 The idea also of extreme height was to rne more determinate and 

 ])recise than on the mountains of Switzerland ; and though the 

 immediate objects of vision were not so numerous, yet as the 

 ascont is more rapid, the declivity sharper, and there is here no 

 mountain like Munt Blanc towering above you, the 12000 feet 



R 2 above 



