CHAPTER VI. 

 The North Coast of Tenerife. 



T T says much for Tenerife, that without the aid of 

 those two accessories, rivers and lakes, which are 

 so closely associated with much that is beautiful in 

 scenery, the island should yet be able to hold its place 

 as one of the beauty spots of nature. The north shore 

 of Tenerife has a charm peculiarly its own, and at no 

 spot on the island is a more pleasing wealth of colour 

 drawn A together than at the Port of Orotava. Here the 

 sea is almost always rough, and it is but seldom that 

 the deep blue of its water is not separated from the 

 shore by a line of white surf. All along this coast the 

 colour-changes are rung on black, white, arid blue ; the 

 unusually deep blue of the sea, the snowy whiteness of 

 the foam, and the black sand of the shore. There is 

 always change in this prospect, for the waves of the 

 Atlantic as they roll in, time after time, are of such a 

 size that they thunder on to the rocks, transforming 

 the black shore for the time being into a carpet of white 

 foam. 



But if change of colour were needed, it is sup- 

 plied in the vegetation which grows in places almost 

 down to the margin of the shore itself, or in the vil- 

 lages and small ports which alternate with deep ravines 

 along this coast. Chief among these is the Port of 



