THE PLAIN OE RETAMA. 
GO 
from the ground, and the extent of the plain. We suffered 
much from the suffocating dust of the pumice-stone, in 
which we were continually enveloped. In the midst of this 
pmin are tufts of the relama, which is the Spartium nuhige- 
nurn of Aiton. M. de Martiniere, one of the botanists whc 
perished in the expedition of Laperouse, wished to introduce 
this beautiful shrub into Languedoc, where firewood is very 
scarce. It grows to the height of nine feet, and is loaded 
with odoriferous flowers, with which the goat hunters, that 
we met in our road, had decorated their hats. The goats 
of the peak, which are of a deep brown colour, are reckoned 
delicious food ; they browse on the spartium, and have run 
wild in the deserts from time immemorial. They have been 
transported to Madeira, where they are preferred to the 
goats of Europe. 
As far as the rock of Gayta, or the entrance of the exten- 
sive Llano del Ketama, the peak of Teneriffe is covered with 
beautiful vegetation. There are no traces of recent devas- 
tation. We might have imagined ourselves scaling the 
side of some volcano, the fire of which had been extin- 
guished as remotely as that of Monte Cavo, near Eomc ; 
but scarcely had we reached the plain covered with pumice- 
stone, when the landscape changed its aspect, and at every 
step we met with large blocks of obsidian thrown out by the 
volcano. Everything hero speaks perfect solitude. A few 
goats and rabbits only bound across the plain. The barren 
region of the peak is nine square leagues ; and as the lower 
regions viewed from this point retrograde in the distance, the 
island appears an immense heap of torrefied matter, hemmed 
round by a scanty border of vegetation. 
Erom the region of the Spartium nubigenum wo passed 
through narrow defiles, and small ravines hollowed at a very 
remote time by the torrents, first arriving at a more elevated 
plain (el Monton de Trigo), then at the place where we in- 
tended to pass the night. This station, which is more than 
1530 toises above the coast, bears the name of the English 
Halt (Estancia do los Ingleses*), no doubt because most ol 
* This denomination was in use as early as the beginning of the lasl 
century. Mr. Eden, who corrupts all Spanish words, as do most travel- 
lers in our own times, calls it the Stancha: it is the Station des liochers 
of M. Borda, as is proved by the barometrical heights there observed. 
