302 Mr. Ben NET on the Island of^ener'ife. 



that lay on the right of our ascent, and which traverse that part of 

 the island, running from east to west from their point of departure 

 at the Canales to where they end in an abrupt headland on the coast, 

 with their forests and villages and vinyards, the port with the shipping 

 in the roads, the towns of Orotava with their spires glittering as the 

 morning sun burst upon them, afforded a chearful contrast to the 

 streams of lava, the mounds of ash and pumice, and the sulphur- 

 ated rock on which we had taken our seat. The sensation of ex- 

 treme height w^as in fact one of the most extraordinary I ever felt, 

 and though I did not find the pain in my chest arising from the 

 rarity of the atmosphere, near so acute as on the mountains of 

 Switzerland, yet there was a keenness in the air independent of the 

 cold that created no small uneasiness in the lungs. The respiration 

 became short and quick, and repeated halts were found necessary. 

 The idea also of extreme height was to me more determinate and 

 precise than on the mountains of Switzerland ; and though the 

 immediate objects of vision were not so numerous, yet as the 

 ascent is more rapid, the declivity sharper, and there is here no 

 mountain like Mont Blanc towering above you, the 12,000 

 feet above the level of the sea appeared considerably more 

 than a similar elevation above the lake of Geneva. We re- 

 mained at the summit about three-quarters of an hour, our ascent 

 had cost us a labour of four hours, as we left the Estancia at 

 ten minutes before three and reached the top of the peak before 

 seven ; many indeed of our halts were needless, and M. Escolar 

 told me that he had twice ascended to the summit in somewhat less 

 than three hours. Our thermometer which was graduated to the 

 scale of Fahrenheit was during our ascent as follows : at Orotava 

 at eight in the morning, 74°; at six in the evening at La Estancia^ 

 50° ; at one in the following morning 42° ; at La Ciicva at half-past 



