Summit of the Peak of Tenerifj'e in February 1829. 143 



vances were useless ; as it blew in eddies and frequently scat- 

 tered our fires: but two hours after sunset the violence of the 

 gale very much abated, and only came in hollow gusts with a 

 noise similar to that of distant thunder in a mountainous 

 country. 



My guide and muleteer soon forgot all their fatigues in a 

 peaceful slumber; but the scene around me was so strange 

 and interesting, and my feelings were so closely allied both to 

 pleasure and pain, that sleep was completely banished from 

 my eyes. My imagination took me to that distant period, 

 when the Canadas upon which the Peak is situated was an in- 

 flamed gulf of volcanic matter, twenty miles in circumference, 

 and nearly a thousand feet deep, sending forth on all sides 

 torrents of liquid lava, raising plains into high mountains or 

 sinking elevated lands into valleys, and creating by degrees the 

 celebrated volcano upon which I was placed, and which must 

 have so frequently threatened destruction to the interesting 

 people who were so cruelly exterminated by the sword of the 

 Spaniards. But everything around me was now calm and 

 placid: the valleys and mountains below were hidden from my 

 view by white fleecy clouds, which had the appearance of an 

 immense plain of snow some hundred square miles in extent; 

 and towering above this sea of vapours, like rocks in the ocean, 

 were the elevated lands of Canary, the mountain of Angostura* 

 in the Cumbre, Montana Blancaf above the Valley of Oro- 

 tava, Pedrogil % on the S.E. side of the same valley, and the 

 Risco of Guqjara §, which is a part of the elevated chain of 

 mountains surrounding the Canadas from K. to W.S.W. 

 From the refractive state of the atmosphere, these elevations 

 appeared to be higher than they actually were. This was 

 particularly marked by the neighbouring mountain of Guajara, 

 which is only nineteen feet higher than the Estancia ; yet at 

 night it appeared to be considerably above it. 



The blueness of the zenith was such, that a person who 

 had not witnessed it would have supposed it unnatural if he 

 had seen it represented in a picture ; and from the clearness of 

 the atmosphere, the light given by the stars and planets was 

 sufficient to enable me to see to write my observations ; and 

 Venus left a faint glimmering of light on a wreath of snow 

 near my resting-place ; and when the moon, which was just en- 

 tering her first quarter, arose, I could distinctly see the degrees 



* Which is 7070 feet above the level of the sea. 

 \ "Which is 6731 feet above the level of the sea. 

 j Which is 6148 feet above the level of the sea. 

 § Which is 9949 feet above the level of the sea. 



upon 



