PICTURESQUE SCENERY. 
37 
the globe, subterraneous fires have pierced through the 
rocks of primitive formation. In treating hereafter of the 
great number of warm springs which we have seen issuing 
from granite, gneiss, and micaceous schist, we shall have 
occasion to return to this subject, which is one of the most 
important of the physical history of the globe. 
We re-embarked at sunset, and hoisted sail, but the breeze 
was too feeble to permit us to continue our course to Tene- 
rifle. The sea was calm ; a reddish vapour covered the 
horizon, and seemed to magnify every object. In this soli- 
tude, amidst so many uninhabited islets, we enjoyed for 
a long time tlie view of ragged and wild scenery. The 
black mountains of Graciosa appeared like perpendicular 
walls five or six hundred feet high. Their shadows, thrown 
over the surface of the ocean, gave a gloomy aspect to the 
scenery. Bocks of basalt, emerging from tlie bosom of the 
waters, wore the resemblance of the ruins of some vast 
edifice, and carried our thoughts hack to the remote 
period when submarine volcanoes gave birth to new is- 
lands, or rent continents asunder. Every thing which sur- 
rounded us seemed to indicate destruction and sterility ; , 
but the back-ground of the picture, the coasts of Lance- 
rota presented a more smiling aspect. In a narrow pass 
between two hills, crowned with scattered tufts of trees, 
marks of cultivation were visible. The last rays of the sun 
gilded the corn ready for the sickle. Even the desert is 
animated wherever we can discover a trace of the industry 
of man. 
We endeavoured to get out of this hay by the pass which 
separates Alegranza from Montana Clara, and through which 
we had easily entered to land at the northern point of Gra- 
ciosa. The wind having fallen, the currents drove us very 
near a rock, on which the sea broke with violence, and 
which is noted in the old charts under the name of Hell, or 
Infiemo. As we examined this rock at the distance of two 
cables’ length, we found that it was a mass of lava three or 
four toises high, full of cavities, and covered with scoria) 
resembling coke. We may presume that this rock,* which 
* I must here observe, that this rock is noted on the celebrated Venc 
tian chart of Andrea Bianco, but that the name of Infierno is given, as 
iu the more ancient chart of Picigano, made in 136?, to Teneriffe, without 
