628 



CANARY ISLANDS— PALM A. 



[Ch. XXTX. 



Fiff. G95. 



of Konigsberg.* We visited, among other places, the beautiful island 

 of Palma, a spot rendered classical by the description given of it in 

 1825 by the late Leopold Yon Buch, who regarded it as a type of 

 what he called a "crater of elevation." 



Palma is 46 geographical miles west of Teneriffe. Seen from the 

 channel which divides the two islands, Palma appears to consist of 



two principal mountain masses, 

 the depression between them 

 being at the pass of Tacanda, or 

 at a (map, fig. 695), which is 

 about 4600 feet above the sea 

 level. The most northern o 

 these masses makes, notwith 

 standing certain irregularities 

 hereafter to be mentioned, a con- 



Tazacorl-e 



Mt •/£ r u P? 



^\Sarlfftreiito 



\ Pi 



Geogr. Miles. 



Fuencaliente Pi 



Map of Palma. from Survey of 

 Capt. Vidal, E.X 



sidcrable approach in general 

 form to a great truncated cone, 

 having in the centre a huge and 

 deep cavity called by the inhab- 

 itants " La Caldera." This cav- 

 ity (b, c, d, e, fig. 695) is from 3 

 to 4 geographical miles in diame- 

 ter, and the range of precipices 

 surrounding it vary from* about 

 1500 to 2500 feet in vertical 

 height. From their base a steep 

 slope, clothed by a splendid forest of pines, descends for a thousand 

 and sometimes two thousand feet lower, the centre of the Caldera 

 being about 2000 feet above the sea. The northern half of the 

 encircling ridge is more than 7000 English feet above the sea in its 

 highest peaks, and is annually white with snow during the winter 

 months. 



Externally the flanks of this truncated cone incline outwards in 

 every direction, the slopes being steepest near the crest, and lessening 

 as they approach the lower country. A great number of ravines 

 commence on the flanks of the mountain, a short distance below the 

 summit, shallow at first, but getting deeper as they descend, and be- 

 cqming at the same time more numerous, as in the cones of Java 

 before mentioned. 



So unbroken is the precipitous boundary-wall of the Caldera, ex- 

 cept at its southwestern end, where the torrent which drains it 

 through a deep gorge (b, b', fig. 696) issues, that there is not even a 

 footpath by which one can descend into it save at one place called 

 the Cumbrecito (e, map, fig. 695). This Cumbrecito is a narrow 

 col or watershed at the height of about 2000 feet above the bot- 



See Hartung, Geology of Madeira and Porto Santo. Leipzig, 1864. 



