PEAK OF TEKERTTTE. 
47 
place the volcano rises above the horizon scarcely as much 
as Vesuvius seen from the mole of Naples, the aspect of the 
peak is still very majestic, when those who anchor in the 
road discern it for the first time. The Piton alone was 
visible to us ; its cone projected itself on a sky of the purest 
blue, whilst dark thick clouds enveloped the rest of the 
mountain to the height of 1S00 toises. The pumice-stone, 
illumined by the first rays of the sun, reflected a reddish 
light, like that which tinges the summits of the higher Alps, 
This light by degrees becomes dazzlingly white ; and, deceived 
like most travellers, we thought that the peak was still covered 
with snow, and that we should with difficulty reach the edge 
of the crater. 
W e have remarked, in the Cordillera of the Andes, that 
the conical mountains, such as Cotopaxi and Tungurahua, 
are oftener seen free from clouds, than those of which the 
tops, are broken into bristly points, like Antisana and 
Pichincha; but the peak of Tencriffe, notwithstanding its 
pyramidical form, is a great part of the year enveloped in 
vapours, and is sometimes, during several weeks, invisible 
from the road of Santa Cruz. Its position to the west of an 
immense continent, and its insulated situation in the midst 
of the sea, are no doubt the causes of this phenomenon. 
Navigators are well aware that even the smallest islets, and 
those which arc without mountains, collect and harbour the 
clouds. The decrement of heat is also different above the 
plains of Africa, and above the surface of the Atlantic; 
and the strata of air, brought bv the trade winds, cool in 
proportion as they advance towards tho west. If the air has 
been extremely dry above the burning sands of the desert, it 
is very quickly saturated when it enters into contact with 
the surface of the sea, or with the air that lies ou that sur- 
face. It is easy to conceive, therefore, why vapours become 
visible in the atmospherical, strata, which, at a distance from 
the continent, have no longer the same temperature as when 
they began to be saturated with water. The considerable 
mass of a mountain, rising in the midst of the Atlantic, is 
also an obstacle to the clouds, which are driven out to sea by 
the winds. 
On entering the streets of Santa Cruz, we felt a suffo- 
cating heat, though the thermometer was not above twenty- 
