VILAFLOR 67 



of white that mark the courses of its crevices and 

 gulleys. The air is fragrant with the scent of the 

 flower of the retama, a kind of broom that flourishes 

 here where little else grows ; single bushes of it are 

 dotted here and there for miles around, some excep- 

 tionally large ones growing to a height of three or 

 four feet. 



Keeping well to the left of the Peak, the path leads 

 on for many miles, skirting now and again walls of 

 black lava that rise to a height of fifty feet out of the 

 plain, the light pumice stone yielding a sound as of half- 

 frozen snow under the foot. Now the far side of the 

 Canadas is reached, and the traveller looks down, not 

 over the blue sea on the south side of Tenerife, but on 

 to a billowy plain of white cloud, stretching out into 

 space, while near at hand, like rocks out of the sea, 

 jagged points of black show themselves. 



After descending perhaps a thousand feet, the path 

 skirts a bold sweep of black cindery ground, from which 

 it is separated by a narrow gorge ; the colour-effect of 

 the retama, growing in isolated bushes, on this dark 

 background must surely be unique in nature ; the black 

 cinders, the sage-green stems, and lastly the white 

 flowers, merging in perspective into a delicate mist of 

 white. The cloud-belt soon obscures the view save 

 to a short distance, where occasionally a rugged pine 

 tree takes indistinct form, with its stem bare of branches 

 except near the top. These trees now become more fre- 

 quent and more distinct, until in time the lower limit of 

 the clouds is reached, and sunlight begins to dispel the 

 mist. Bird life begins to show itself, and the Caminero 

 may be seen along the path, now settling on a stone, 



