410 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



At seven in the morning, the barometer rose one tenth of an 

 inch, and, from that instant, the storm began to diminish. 

 At ten o'clock, the barometer again rose some thousandths 

 of an inch, and the rain ceased almost entirely, but the 

 wind continued to blow quite violently until night. At last, 

 on the morning of the 8th of November, the barometer rose 

 to 28.42 inches, and serenity was once more established in the 

 atmosphere. 



Mr. Alison's Narrative of an Excursion to the Summit of 

 the Peak of Teneriffe, in February, 1829. 



198. Fifteen minutes after leaving the last barranco, we 

 crossed another, called Pilloni, which is rather more than 

 3,000 feet above the sea ; and soon after, we entered the 

 Barranco del Pino Dornajito, which is 3,410 feet above the 

 sea ; it is so named, from an enormous pine tree, that grew 

 near the western side of the ravine. It is said, that this 

 tree was full grown at the time of the conquest of the island, 

 360 years ago ; thus, having stood the storms of so many 

 ages, it was at last swept into the ravine, by the dreadful 

 water-spout that devastated the island on the 7th of Novem- 

 ber, 1826. Although this tree is partly destroyed by its 

 fall, yet it still measures 128 feet in length, and 30 in cir- 

 cumference. Under a precipice, in the middle of the ravine, 

 is a small spring of water, with a wooden cross at the side 

 of it; the temperature of the spring was 56, but it appears 

 to vary more than any other which I have examined, as in 

 October, the temperature of the water was 65. 5. At the 

 time of the beforementioned water-spout, a body of water, 

 some hundred feet wide, and thirty or forty deep, fell over 

 this spring and cross, without doing it the least damage ; 

 which the peasantry attribute to the Divine interposition, 

 forgetting that the water, in falling from the height above, 

 would form a curve, and effectually protect it from injury. 





