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inclined rocks form a kind of cavern, that affords 

 a shelter from the winds. This point, already 

 higher than the summit of Canigou, can be 

 reached on the backs of mules ; and here ends 

 the expedition of numbers of travellers, who on 

 leaving Orotava had hoped to have ascended to 

 the brink of the crater. Though in the midst of 

 summer, and under the bright sky of Africa, we 

 suffered from the cold during the night. The 

 thermometer descended as low as to five degrees. 

 Our guides made a large fire with the dry 

 branches of retama. Having neither tents nor 

 cloaks, we lay down on a heap of burnt rocks, 

 and were singularly incommoded by the flame 

 and smoke, which the wind drove toward us. 

 We had attempted to form a kind of screen with 

 cloths tied together, but our enclosure took fire, 

 which we did not perceive, till the greater part 

 had been consumed by the flames. We had 

 never passed a night on a point so elevated, and 

 did not then conjecture, that on the ridge of the 

 Cordilleras we should one day inhabit towns 

 higher than the summit of the volcano we were 

 to scale on the morrow. As the temperature di- 

 minished, the peak became covered with thick 

 clouds. The approach of night interrupts the 

 play of the ascending current, which, during the 

 day, rises from the plains toward the high re- 

 gions of the atmosphere ; and the air, in cooling, 

 loses it's capacity of suspending water. A strong 



