THE AZORES 



S79 



is in part grassy and in part boggy, cattle grazing here in numbers. 

 To the east of it lies the mountainous eastern part of the island, 

 with which I became acquainted as far as Santo Amaro on the north 

 coast and Ribeiras on the south coast. The general level of this 

 upland region is 2500 to 2800 feet, and from it rise abruptly several 

 isolated peaks, the highest having an altitude of about 3500 feet. 

 Numerous large mountain lakes lie interspersed among the peaks 

 at elevations of 2500 to 2900 feet. They are evidently shallow, and 

 are usually 300 to 500 yards in length. With the exception of the 

 " Lagoa Rosada," not one of them could be regarded as occupying 

 old crater cavities. They are : — 



1. The " Lagoa das Teixas." behind San Roque. 



2. The " Lagoa Paul," at the foot of Pico Topo. 



3. The " Lagoa Caiado," lying W.S.W. of Praynha do Norte. 



4. The " Lagoa Rosada," in the Caldeira de Santa Barbara dis- 



trict. 



5. The " Lagoa do Ilheo," behind Santo Amaro. 



6. The " Lacroa Negra," behind Santo Amaro. 



The peaks are mostly bare of trees and shrubs, and on their steep 

 slopes sheep browse in numbers. The only one of them that I 

 ascended was Pico Topo, which lies behind Lagens, and proved to 

 have an altitude of only about 3300 feet instead of 5357 feet as stated 

 in the Admiralty chart. It is a long, ridge-shaped, hog-backed 

 mountain, which rises precipitously from the coast on the southern 

 and eastern sides, but is elevated only about 700 feet above the plains 

 on its north side. 



Very moist conditions prevail in the elevated plains between the 

 mountains amongst which the lakes lie. In this upland region, 

 2500 to 2800 feet above the sea, there are extensive wet moors, where 

 Sphagnum, Polytrichum, Carices, Anagallis tenella, Hydrocotyle 

 vulgaris, etc., thrive, as well as large areas covered with wood and 

 bush, where the Juniper is at home, and where filmy ferns (Hymeno- 

 phyllum and Trichomanes) abound. The humidity of this region 

 affords a great contrast to the relatively dry conditions prevailing 

 at similar altitudes on the slopes of the great cone of Pico. Even 

 in fine August weather the grass and herbage in the trails remained 

 wet during most of the day, and one's boots and leggings quickly 

 became soaked through even late in the morning. It is the land of 

 the Juniper and of the plants of the boggy moor ; and though drier 

 bracken moors are frequent, where, besides Pteris aquilina, there 

 grow C allium vulgaris, Erythrcea massoni, the Azorean variety of 

 Lysimachia nemorum, Lycopodiam selago, Polygala vulgaris, Potentilla 

 tormentilla, etc., it is to the two first-named features that the lake region 

 between the mountains owes its most conspicuous characters. 



In the woods the Junipers attain a much larger size than on the 

 slopes of the great mountain of Pico, their height being often fifteen 

 or sixteen feet, and their diameter fifteen to eighteen or even twenty 

 inches. Here the Loranth, Arceuthobium ozycedri, flourishes in 

 places on the Junipers. The other components of the bush are the 

 Tree-Heath {Erica azorica), the Tree-Euphorbia (E. stygiana), 



