chap. I.] EXPEDITION TO S A .° VINCENTE. 17 



of the southern coast, which lies extended before you on the 

 left. Some people prefer making the expeditions to Machico 

 and the fossil beds of Canical from Sancta Cruz, where there 

 is good accommodation ; a sojourn there of a few days affords 

 an agreeable change from Funchal. 



EXPEDITION TO S A .° VINCENTE. 



If any one desires, however, not to leave Madeira without 

 having seen the most striking features and grandest deve- 

 lopment of its scenery, he must not satisfy himself with 

 a distant glimpse only of the northern side of the island. 

 Let us, then, make an expedition to the north, and consider 

 what is most worthy of notice there. We will set off early, 

 and go to S^° Vincente by the Jardim and the Curral; as far 

 as Pico Grande is old ground to us, but it does not lose by a 

 second visit : passing on, we come to a road cut in the face 

 of a lofty cliff, being the base of the Pico Grande, from 

 which the water is rilling down, and splashes you as you 

 pass : below is a basin of forests, broken here and there by 

 mountain torrents ; presently you reach the Encumeado * of 

 gao Vincente, where the magnificent woods present a rich 

 feast to the eye, and you look down upon the beautiful Serra 

 d'Agoa opening to the sea at Bibeira Brava. There has 

 been a swollen torrent here lately, and part of the bridge is 

 washed away : enough of the fabric remains for a man to 

 walk upon, but the horses cannot pass ; your burroquero does 

 not help you, he looks on in helpless terror. What is to be 

 done? See, there are some planks below that have been 

 stayed by that mass of rock in the bed of the torrent ; with 

 the assistance of your boys you at length get them up, and 



* " Encumeado " is a spot no cume, " on a high place," or summit of a 

 mountain. 



