404 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



Notice of a Hurricane which ravaged the Island of Teneriffe, 

 in the month of November, 1836. 



[By M. S. BERTHELOT. Annalesde Chemic. & de Phys. Vol. Iviii. p. 209.] 



Towards the tops of the mountains, the water-spouts fell 

 on the culminating tops, tore away the soil, laid bare the 

 rocks, razed the forest, and caused this mingled mass to roll 

 through the windings of the ravines. This confused mass, 

 on reaching the coast, with the overflowing torrents, sapped 

 the fortresses situated at the entrance of the valley, and en- 

 tirely destroyed them. In this manner, in the bay of St. 

 Croix, an extensive fortification was swept away, with all 

 its arms. And the strong castle of Candalasia, and one of 

 those which defended the port of Orotava, disappeared, 

 without leaving a trace. This terrible storm produced ex- 

 traordinary events in the narrow passages in the mountain 

 tops. I was myself struck by it in retracing anew that 

 high point about a month after the event. Besides the rain, 

 which did not cease to fall during twenty-four hours, and 

 which a furious wind rendered more violent, it appears that 

 these water-spouts fell on the points which offered the most 

 attraction to meteors, such as the peak, and the adjacent 

 country. The ground was turned up in a circumference of 

 more than six hundred feet, and to a depth of from twenty 

 to thirty feet in the circuit of the Canadas, which showed 

 the action of the water in hollowing out the earth, by its 

 being discharged with impetuosity. Mr. Alison, who went 

 over the place at the time of his ascension to the Peak, in 

 February, 1828, gave me a description of one of those ex- 

 cavations, which his guides showed as the effect of the 

 storm. He perceived distinctly the trace of a water-spout ; 

 all the land had been inundated for the space of a circle, 

 marked by furrows disposed in concentric circles, such as 

 are sometimes produced by whirlwinds in a sandy soil. 



