384 Mr H. Gadow, On some Caves in Portugal. [Mar. 15, 



Our provisions consisted of some tinned sardines and tunny fish 

 in oil, and a daily supply from our cave-lord of wine, bread, eggs, 

 pig-butter, i.e. dripping, cucumbers, onions, and once for a treat 

 twenty small potatoes. Our water supply was fetched from a 

 powerful spring in the bed of the river; although apparently 

 good, we deemed it advisable always to run it through one of 

 Lipscombe's small military filters. 



With this fare we kept remarkably healthy, not a moment's 

 illness having been felt by any of us. The heat during the daytime 

 was great. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. generally from 95° to 101° in 

 the shade and 128° in the sun, but this otherwise intolerable heat 

 was greatly mitigated by a southern breeze, which with great 

 precision set in daily about 10 A.M. and continued with increasing 

 force until 5 P.M. when it left off, sometimes rather suddenly. This 

 refreshing sea-breeze is, I think, caused by the over-heated plains of 

 the Alemtejo. I encountered it likewise on the Serra de Caldeirao, 

 which divides the Algarve from the Alemtejo, but not inside the 

 latter province itself. There, on the treeless and shrubless plains, 

 it was still hotter for us, one day 135° without any wind and all 

 day long on mules' back. During the heat of the day no life is 

 visible ; the very insects sit still below the plants and stones or 

 are hidden in the cracks of the bark of the trees. The lizards and 

 geckos have likewise vanished, and the only sound is now and 

 then the shrill noise made by the "Cigarra" (Cicada) in the dense 

 foliage of the locust tree, the only plant which seems really to 

 enjoy the Algravian summer, finding ways and means in the 

 baked hard soil of the hills to keep up the dark green colour of its 

 pretty leaves and to grow its numerous pendant beans. All the 

 other vegetation was shrivelled up or wore the dusky greenish- 

 grey garb of the olive tree. Only along the banks of the river 

 and in the stagnant pools taking its place during the hot season, 

 is there life and rich luxurious vegetation. The pools abound 

 with snakes, fishes, frogs and small tortoises. The river itself 

 was partly dry, but here and there were springs and pools, the 

 water being dammed up by dykes and carefully saved for irrigating 

 the rich groves of vines, melons and Indian corn. 



In the antechamber of our cave the temperature ranged from 

 72° to 80°, at night outside the cave never below 72°. Far inside 

 the cave the thermometer stood permanently at 64°, which agrees 

 very well with the mean annual temperature of the country. Rain 

 does not fall from June to October. During my four weeks' 

 travelling through the Algarve and southern Alemtejo I never 

 saw a cloud, except one morning, when it was hazy and rather 

 close for a few hours. There was likewise not the smallest trace 

 of dew on the hills, which circumstance enabled us to sleep outside 

 the cave, i.e. away from the gnats, mosquitos and fleas, under the 



