54 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



Vice-Consul, all the arrangements were made for an ascent of the Peak on the following 

 morning. The route lay up a long sloping ridge, which leads to the base of the actual 

 cone of the Peak. This ridge is bounded by a precipice on the side facing Orotava. 

 When a height of about 2000 feet had been attained, the villagers tried to dissuade the 

 party from going farther, saying that all would be frozen to death. 



The well-known zones of vegetation of the Peak of Tenerife are not very well defined 

 on the ordinary route which was the one adopted. The limit of cultivation was reached at 

 about 3000 feet, at which height corn of some kind was just springing up, and above this 

 a zone was entered covered with a tree-like Heath (Erica arborea), which continued 

 for about 2000 feet, and then ceased abruptly. A little higher up, the mountain side 

 was somewhat sparsely covered by large bluish-green bushes of the species of Broom 

 (Spartocytisus nubigenns), called by the natives "Retama,"and well known from the 

 accounts of numerous travellers ; amongst these shrubs a tent was pitched, at an eleva- 

 tion of 6500 feet. Above the retama, a small Violet (Viola teydea) is said to 

 extend up to 10,000 feet, and beyond this all is barren. The Pine (Pinus canariensis) 

 which grows on some parts of the mountain is not seen on the usual track of ascent. A 

 halt was made amongst the heath for lunch, and plenty of water cresses were found 

 growing in a spring. Water had to be carried up from this spring, since there is none 

 to be obtained above, except by melting snow, as the porous volcanic ashes soak up all 

 the water yielded by the natural melting of the snow, and there is no place where any 

 can collect. At about 4000 feet elevation a dense bank of cloud, formed by the trade 

 wind, was passed through, a similar one to that which had been seen from below on the 

 day before, and had hidden the middle of the mountain from view, but not the same, 

 for in the early morning there had not been a cloud in the sky ; the bank formed about 

 mid-day. At the camp, far above this cloud-bank, the sun shone brightly, until 

 about six o'clock in the evening, when it began to disappear, and the air. which had 

 been almost too hot, became suddenly cold, the temperature going down almost to 

 freezing point. 



A very extraordinary sunset effect was observed. The upper surface of the cloud-bank 

 stretched below in every direction, like a snow-white billowy sea hiding the actual 

 sea from sight entirely, but just allowing a glimpse to be caught of the far-off island of 

 Palma, which appeared as a purple streak at the edge of the cloud horizon. As the sun 

 went down, the clear sky beyond the white motionless cloud-bank became tinged of a 

 brilliant orange colour, and over it there shot out from the descending sun a fan of pale 

 crimson streamers deeply tinted at their base, and gradually fading off into the dark blue 

 sky above but visible nearly to the zenith. Beyond the great cloud-bank more distant 

 streaky clouds, lit up of a brilliant violet, formed a sort of background to the scene. Some 

 of these little distant clouds from time to time assumed fantastic shapes, and once 

 it seemed almost certain that it was the sea in the distance that was seen below with 



