6 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



along the coast from north to south, to have been once a complete cinder ; 

 and presents to view a great deal of the brokenness and irregularity of a 

 half assumed coke. This resemblance, however, contrary to expectation, 

 becomes less perfect as we approach the Peak, the great chimney of the 

 fiery cauldron boiling beneath. Oratava stands upon a gentle slope at 

 the foot of the mountain, and is surrounded by fields of corn, gardens, 

 and vineyards. The culture of the soil is promoted to a very extraor- 

 dinary degree, particularly in some patches so elevated and so secluded 

 as to appear inaccessible to the husbandman. But the plain is very 

 forbidding ; the beach is composed of naked, pointed, and cinerous 

 rocks : the whole island is any thing but picturesque. I first saw the 

 Peak from the north end of Palma, after a hot and calm day. The ship's 

 company had been looking out, from the earliest dawn, for this giant of 

 the ocean ; this pillar of the firmament ; but a billowy white cloud 

 hung the whole day upon the eastern part of the horizon, and hid the 

 island of TenerifFe from our view. Determined, if possible, to behold 

 an object so interesting, which I might never have another opportunity 

 of seeing, I ascended the mast ; still the cloud intervened, and I was 

 coming down in despair. Having reached the main shrouds, something 

 about the top-mast excited attention, and looking up at it I saw the 

 summit of the mountain at an unthought of elevation. It was clothed 

 in the richest garment of snow, and glittered in the reflected glory of 

 the evening sun. The cloud rested, indeed, upon the mountain, but it 

 formed only the flounce of the mantle ; it was the month of February, 

 and winter stood finely contrasted with a deep blue aether. 



The mountain is still an active volcano, whose only crater is said 

 to be quite at the summit ; an elevation incomparably above that of 

 any other part of the island or neighbouring shores ; and as every thing 

 in the country indicates its heated origin, it is generally supposed to 

 have been discharged from the bowels of the earth through this aperture. 

 If then this conjecture be correct, there must have been a period when 

 the liquid lava flowed over the edge of the crater, when the chimney 

 which connects it with the cauldron, must have been full of it. That 



