1835.] AT A SALINA. 373 



One day we accompanied a party of the Spaniards in 

 their whale-boat to a saHna, or lake from which sal^ is 

 procured. After landing, we had a very rough walk over 

 a rugged field of recent lava, which has almost surrounded 

 a tuff-crater, at the bottom of which the salt lake lies. 

 The water is only three or four inches deep, and rests on 

 a layer of beautifully crystallised, white salt. The lake 

 is quite circular, and is fringed with a border of bright 

 green succulent plants ; the almost precipitous walls of 

 the crater are clothed with wood, so that the scene was 

 altogether both picturesque and curious. A few years 

 since, the sailors belonging to a sealing-vessel murdered 

 their captain in this quiet spot ; and we saw his skull lying 

 among the bushes. 



During the greater part of our stay of a week, the sky 

 was cloudless, and if the trade-wind failed for an hour, 

 the heat became very oppressive. On two days, the 

 thermometer within the tent stood for some hours at 93° ; 

 but in the open air, in the wind and sun, at only 85°. The 

 sand was extremely hot ; the thermometer placed in some 

 of a brown colour immediately rose to 137°, and how much 

 above that it would have risen, I do not know, for it was 

 not graduated any higher. The black sand felt much 

 hotter, so that even in thick boots it was quite disagreeable 

 to walk over it. 



The natural history of these islands is eminently curious, 

 and well deserves attention. Most of the organic produc- 

 tions are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else ; there 

 is even a difference between the inhabitants of the different 

 islands ; yet all show a marked relationship with those of 

 America, though separated from that continent by an open 

 space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in width. The 

 .uchipelago is a little world within itself, or rather a 

 .satellite attached to America, whence it has derived a 

 few stray colonists, and has received the general character 

 of its indigenous productions. Considering the small size 

 of these islands, we feel the more astonished at the numb<i 

 of their aboriginal beings, and at their confined range 

 Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and lliQ 

 hounciaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we 

 are led to believe that within a period, geologically recent, 

 the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in 

 j)ace and time, we seem to be brought somewhat n»ai In 



