i8 
MADEIRA. 
across the mountains. For this purpose we engaged a number 
of mules and as many muleteers^ each beast having its 
driver who, with his long staff armed with a pike, goads the 
animal in the flank, or checks his career by a blow on the 
face, to regulate the pace of the beast with his own, without 
regard to the feelings of the rider. There being very little 
level ground on the island, our road was either up steep ac- 
clivities, along the edges of frightful precipices, across deep 
ravines, or through swampy thickets of brushwood. The 
island, however, abounds with grand and picturesque land- 
scapes ; and many of the deep vallies exhibit magnificent 
and romantic scenery. In the vicinity of the town, and along 
the sea-coast, the rocks and stones are mostly formed of com- 
pact bluish lava ; but in proportion as we advanced in height, 
the volcanic products disappeared, and quartz, and close- 
grained schistus became more abundant.. In crossing the 
summit of a mountain, towards the east end of the island, we 
met with the crater of an extinct volcano, which appeared to 
be about three hundred yards in diameter; the bottom was 
nearly covered with a species of penny-wort. 
We saw only a few trees, and these were generally growing 
in the deep glens, none of which were remarkable for their 
size or their beauty, except the tall and elegant Ardisia exceka. 
Some large trees of a species of cedar, with which the island 
is supposed to have once been covered, are said to be still 
growing in the ravines among the higher mountains ; but we 
did not meet with any of them. The general scarcity of soil, 
indeed, which prevails in every part of the island, except in 
particular situations, where rills of water may have carried 
I 
