OUTWARD BOUND. 13 



meals is the foreign end. Spanish and Italian, French and 

 Portuguese, are the languages in which conversation is 

 carried on. This is pleasant and instructive. 



June 15. The sun rose at five, just as we were off the 

 northerly end of the island of Teneriffe, the most important 

 of the Canaries, and the most celebrated, owing to the 

 lofty Peak of Teneriffe, which is situate on the southerly 

 end, and about seventeen miles from the last shore. The 

 Peak is 3715 metres, or 12,188 feet, high, and rises very 

 abruptly. It is also called Pico de Teyde. Extending 

 along the whole east coast of the island is a range of hills, 

 beneath which, at the north-east, lies the capital, Santa 

 Cruz ; these mountains rise near the Peak to a height of 

 2862 metres, or 9410 feet, and are here called Las Canadas. 

 Although out at sea, the chain appears to rise abruptly from 

 the shore ; yet its great height looks insignificant from this 

 side, owing to the whole length of the island (fifty-three 

 miles) being seen at once ; and the Canadas again 

 dwarf the Peak, which rises seventeen miles inland, and 

 almost behind the highest part of this range. The effect of 

 all this is to disappoint the general observer who has 

 anticipated something grand in an island mountain rising 

 12,000 feet, and I fear I must confess that most of the 

 passengers who looked upon the Peak for the first time 

 ridiculed his appearance very much. From the other side 

 of the island, however, the effect is grand in the extreme. 

 The Cotopaxi steamed between the islands of Teneriffe and 

 Canaria Grand Canary which are about forty miles 

 apart, ten miles or so from the former. Canaria, as it 

 appeared at 5 a.m., presented a lofty, bold, rugged, and 

 broken outline rising above banks of mist. Its highest 

 point is 1952 metres, or 6404 feet. The Canary group 

 consists of seven islands, of which Teneriffe, Canaria, 



