304 Mr. Bennet on the Island of Teneriffe. 



ascended the preceding day, we reached about four o'clock the 

 country house of our hospitable friend Mr. Barry. 



The difficulties of this enterprise have been much exagerated, the 

 ascent on foot is not a labour of more than four hours at most, and 

 the whole undertaking not to be compared in point of fatigue to 

 what the traveller undergoes who visits the Alps. That the ascent 

 must be hazardous in a storm of hail and snow there can be no 

 doubt, but to cross Salisbury plain may sometimes be dangerous. 

 Yet stripped of poetical terrors and divested of the eloquent des- 

 cription of some writers, there is perhaps no mountain in Europe, 

 the ascent of which does not furnish more difficulties than the Peak 

 of Teneriffe. 



