CHAPTER XT. 
GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE ISLAND OF 
MADEIRA. 
Tue most striking peculiarity of the mountain scenery of Madeira 
consists in. the jagged outlines of the ridges, the rude towers and 
needles of rock that characterize the higher peaks as well as lower ele- 
vations, and the deep precipitous gorges which intersect the mountains 
almost to their bases. The shores in most parts are lofty cliffs, occa- 
sionally showing an erect front one or two thousand feet in height. 
These cliffs are interrupted by a few small bays, where a richly culti- 
vated valley approaches the water between abrupt rocky precipices, 
or green fields lie surrounded by an amphitheatre of rugged hills. 
These narrow bays are the sites of the villages of Madeira. Near the 
eastern cape of the island, we observed many isolated rocks standing 
off the land, with bold sides and broken outline. One of these islets 
had a slender pyramidal form, though extremely jagged surface, with 
an arched way through its base, affording a passage for the breakers. 
The surface of Madeira rises on all sides to a high central ridge, 
and deep valleys radiate towards the shores. ‘The roads are an end- 
less succession of steep ascents and descents; yet they open to so 
many views of unusual beauty and grandeur that the traveller finds 
little tediousness in the route. ‘The Corral is one of the most wonder- 
ful of its gorges, and though often a theme for the traveller’s pen, its 
grandeur remains yet untold. ‘The enclosing walls of two thousand 
feet,—the narrow strip of green at bottom, with its winding rivulet, 
its chapel and its vineyards, reduced to a miniature size by the dis- 
tance,—the bold turrets of rock that tower up from the depths of the 
gorge,—and above the highest western walls, the summit of Pico 
Ruivo, lost in clouds,—are some of the features of the scene as it 
appeared to the writer. 
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