296 Mr. Ben NET on the Island of Teneriffe. 



vault cf heaven appeared studded with innumerable stars, while 

 the valleys of Orotava were hidden from our view by a thin veil 

 of light fleecy clouds, that floated far beneath the elevated spot we 

 had chosen for our resting place ; the solemn stillness of the night 

 was only interrupted by the crackling of the fire round which we 

 stood, and by the whistling of the wind, which coming in hollow 

 gusts from the mountain, resembled the roar of distant cannon. 



Between two and three in the morning we resumed on foot our 

 ascent of the same pumice mountain, the lower part of which we had 

 climbed on horse-back the preceding evening ; the ascent became 

 however much more rapid and difficult, our feet sinking deep in the 

 ashes at every step. From the uncommon sharpness of the acclivity 

 we were obliged to stop often to take breath ; after several halts we at 

 last reached the head of the pumice hill at its point of intersection 

 with the two streams of lava, the direction of which I have before 

 described. This is the commencement of that division of the 

 mountain called el Mai Pais ; after resting some short time here, 

 we began to climb the stream of lava stepping from mass to mass, 

 the ascent is steep, painful and hazardous, in some places the 

 stream of lava is heaped up in dykes or embankments, and we 

 were often obliged to clamber over them as one ascends a steep 

 wall, this lava is of the same porphyritic appearance as the masses 

 w^e found in the plains, it is not covered with a thick scoria, and 

 seems never to have been in a very fluid state, but to have rolled 

 along in large masses. The felspar is crystallized in the lava itself, 

 which is slightly cellular at its surface, yet though I searched 

 carefully I was unable to discover any extraneous substance. The 

 whole composition of the stream seems to be felspar imbedded in 

 a brown clayey paste, remarkably hard, of a close texture and 

 heavy ; judging from the sharp declivity of the mountain it appears 



