284 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
been under Portuguese control, including in 
that phrase the period when Philip II. united 
that crown with his own; and they are ruled 
now by Portuguese military and civil govern- 
ors with the aid of local legislatures. 
Fayal stands, with Pico and San Jorge, rather 
isolated from the rest of the group, and out of 
their sight. It is the largest and most popu- 
lous of the islands, except St. Michael and Ter- 
ceira; it has the best harbor and by far the 
greater share of American commerce, St. Mi- 
chael taking most of the English. Whalers 
put into Fayal for fresh vegetables and supplies, 
and to transship their oil ; while distressed ves- 
sels often seek the harbor to repair damages. 
The island is twenty-five miles long, and shaped 
like a turtle; the cliffs along the sea range 
from five hundred to a thousand feet in height, 
and the mountainous interior rises to three 
thousand. The sea is far more restless than 
upon our coast, the surf habitually higher ; and 
there is such a depth of water in many places 
around the shore, that, on one occasion, a whale- 
ship, drawn too near by the current, broke her 
main yard against the cliff, without grazing her 
keel. 
The population numbers about twenty-five 
thousand, one half of these being found in the 
city of Horta, and the rest scattered in some 
