Mr. Ben NET on the Island of 'Tcneriffe. 29 1 



ash and pumice eruption of Vesuvius and i^tna. The bed of 

 soil is here very deep. I examined some ravines that the rains had 

 laid open to the depth of 30 or 40 feet : the strata were 

 indurated at the bottom, and resembled the tufa in the vicinity of 

 Naples, and all contained the substances mentioned above. This 

 tufaccous character changes as you ascend the hill that separates 

 Laguna from Santa Cruz ; the hill itself, and the whole neigh- 

 bourhood of the latter city is one continued stream of lava, 

 hardly at all decomposed, with little or no vegetation ; but here and 

 there in the hollows some few stunted plants of the aloe algarvensis, 

 and the cytisus. 



Having given a general account of the island, I shall now 

 attempt to describe the country of the peak, which mountain I 

 ascended on the 16th of September, 1810. The road from Puerto 

 Orotava to the city of Orotava, is a gradual and easy slope for three 

 or four miles, through a highly cultivated country. The soil is 

 composed of volcanic ash and earth, and to the eastward of the 

 town of Puerto di Orotava are the remains of a recent volcano, the 

 crater and cone being distinctly visible. Leaving the town of Oro- 

 tava, after a steep ascent of about an hour through a deep ravine, we 

 quitted the cultivated part of the slope or valley, and entered into a 

 forest of chesnuts ; the trees are here of a large size. This forest of 

 chesnuts is mixed with the erica arborea, or tree heath, which shrub 

 rises to the height of 18 or 20 feet. Some of the stems are as thick 

 as the arm of a man, joined together in bunches or tufts like the 

 common heath. The form of this forest is oblong, it covers the 

 flank of those hills which I have already denominated the central 

 chain, from their summit to half their elevation from the plain. The 

 soil here is deep, and formed of decomposed lava, small ash, and 

 pumice. I examined several channels in the strata or ravines 



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