THE AZORES 



361 



thousand feet on April 1. Without informing him of my intention 

 to seize the first opportunity when we were exploring the lower 

 slopes of gaining the summit, I coaxed him on this occasion to an 

 altitude of 6000 feet, and the weather proving fine I completed the 

 ascent with the man following very unwillingly behind, the snow 

 offering but little difficulty. 



It is the lack of warm clothes that mainly accounts for this un- 

 willingness on the part of the Pico islanders to make the ascent 

 in winter. Captain Boid observes in the work quoted below that 

 in winter the peak is " positively inaccessible on account of the 

 snow." This is incorrect. Occasionally in mid- winter a man is 

 sent up by a doctor to procure ice for some sick patient in the coast 

 towns and villages, but he generally returns with a tale of woe that 

 for a long time prevents others from attempting the venture. As a 

 fact, the ascent can often be made in winter ; but both the mountain 

 and the weather have to be carefully watched, the greatest danger 

 to guard against being the dense driving mists, when, as so often 

 happens, clouds gather on the higher slopes. Progress then becomes 

 impossible, and shepherds who have been tending their sheep have 

 perished from exposure. 



I have never heard of any visitor to Pico making the ascent before 

 the month of May. Godman attempted it about the second week 

 of May after waiting for some days, but the weather prevented his 

 succeeding {Natural History of the Azores, p. 15). Though the Bullars 

 ascended on May 12 (A Winter in the Azores), that month is usually 

 regarded as too early in the year. Indeed, Boid, who was in this 

 locality in May 1831, states that he was prevented from ascending 

 the peak as he was informed that " the road to the summit was quite 

 inaccessible until June " (see his Description of the Azores). 



Sketch "of the Botanical Investigation of the Azores. — 

 Apparently, long 'before any systematic investigation "of the flora 

 of the Azores, several of its characteristic plants were introduced 

 into the gardens of Europe, more particularly those of Portugal 

 and England. In southern Portugal Myrica fay a is now " almost 

 indigenous " in the mountains of Algarve and in other localities, 

 and must have been brought from the Azores long ago, a matter 

 referred to in a later page. We learn from Aiton's Hortus Kewensis 

 (1789) that this tree, with other plants from these islands, was 

 introduced in the Kew Gardens through the agency of Francis Masson 

 in 1777 and 1778. Although Masson was one of the first English 

 visitors to the Azores to display an active interest in the flora, a 

 paper by him in the Philosophical Transactions for 1778 on the 

 island of San Miguel contains but little botanical information. In 

 the middle of July 1775 George Forster took several excursions on 

 the island of Fayal during a stay of four or five days made by the 

 Resolution under Captain Cook. He gathered a small collection, 

 mainly consisting of weeds of cultivation and of other plants intro- 

 duced by man, the list of which is given in the Commentationes 

 Societatis Region Scientiarum Gottingensis for 1787 (Vol. IX.). Further 

 reference will be made to this list when dealing with the introduced 

 plants. It is given in Note 33 of the Appendix. 



