34 VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



fible to cultivate, are extremely fertile : this is 

 the property of volcanic iflands. The internal 

 heat of thefe forts of lands, raifes to their furface 

 a portion of the waters with which they are 

 foaked by the rains, and thus gives to vegetation 

 a more than ordinary vigour. 



The too flow flecompofition of fome of thefe 

 volcanic Hones, and the drynefs of fome moun- 

 tains, are fo many caufes which render fcveral 

 other places little fit for culture ; the action of the 

 fire, which has fucceffively extended, at epochs 

 very diflant from each other, to the different 

 parts of the ifland, as is attefted by hiftoricai 

 monuments, and the prefervation of plants which 

 are peculiar to it, has, in thefe different places, 

 retarded the period of a decompofition, without 

 which vegetation cannot take place. 



There had been no volcanic eruption on the 

 ifland of Teneriffe for ninety-two years, when, 

 in the month of June 1798, there broke 

 out a new volcano on the fouth-weft fide of the 

 Peak, as I was informed by Citizen Gicquel, an 

 officer in our navy, who touched at Santa Cruz 

 on his return from the Ifle of France in the 

 rec frigate. 



The following is the account of it given him 

 by Citizen Lc Gros, Conful of the French re- 

 public : 



"On 



