394 Mr. Bennett o« /i><? Geology of Madeira. 



like the granite needles in the Mer de Glace. The columnar strata 

 are found here in all directions. They dip usually to the sea, but 

 occasionally are dislocated in the most abrupt manner. Dykes of 

 lava, rising perpendicularly to the horizon, intersect the strata at right 

 angles. I saw one 200 or 300 feet in height, which cut through 

 several of the alternations of the red and grey lava. This valley of 

 the Corral well merits the most attentive examination ; yet the 

 journey there is one of some labour, and the walk down the river 

 that flows in its bottom so difficult and toilsome, as almost to deter 

 every one from the undertaking. We left the town of Funchal 

 soon after day break, and did not return till between eight and nine 

 at night, having been, during the whole of that period, in a state of 

 incessant exertion on horseback or on foot. The bed of the valley 

 itself cannot be descended on mules or on horseback. The walk is 

 eight or nine miles in length, and you are compelled to clamber over 

 rocks, as there is not even a track, or wade, in the bed of the river, 

 which is rapid, and full of large and pointed stones. Some of the 

 highest hills of the island border on this valley. Several of them 

 rise from the bed of the river in a perpendicular height of 1000 or 

 1500 feet, judging only by the eye, and are what the French term 

 taill'e a pic. Others are broken into a succession of steep descents, 

 and are covered with forests of wood and a profusion of plants. 

 Down many there fall small cataracts of water, and some are hol- 

 lowed into deep recesses, whence issue from the lava numerous little 

 streams that contribute to swell the principal river in the valley. 



As you arrive on the brink of the Corral, after a ride of about 10 

 miles from Funchal, you find yourself suddenly on the edge of a 

 precipice, near to which a sort of traversing stair-case is cut, with a 

 track winding to the bottom. On the right is a wall of lava nearly 

 perpendicular from 400 to 500 feet in depth, composed of the two 



