Toioii and Country Delights 



forest glade, which has been compared rather 

 fancifully to the scenery of Killarney, meanders 

 the Cold River. But this is not what we have 

 come out to see. We leave our horses on its 

 banks, ascend a slope of some two hundred feet 

 to a levada, pass along it by a cutting through 

 one of the narrow ridges characteristic of 

 Madeira scenery, and in a few minutes are in 

 the presence of one of the world's great views. 

 Climbing on to an isolated rock we look down 

 into the vast valley of the Metade, with its 

 precipitous sides rising apparently sheer from 

 its floor upwards some five thousand feet to the 

 pinnacles of the highest mountains. That they 

 are not so precipitous as they look we may 

 judge from the fact that the lower cliifs are 

 clothed everywhere with a wealth of vegetation. 

 The valley is widest, and circular in form, at 

 its head. Mysterious and only half-seen minor 

 valleys branch from the main body, separated 

 from each other by the buttresses of the 

 mountain range. Far below us foams the 

 torrent, a small stream itself, but dowered by 

 the reverberations of a thousand echoes with the 

 roar of a great river. High over all tower 

 the masses of Ruivo and Arriero, and the 



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