VIEW 1'ItOit THE MOUSl'AIS. 
83 
creations of toe imagination and of art, — the favoured climes 
oi Italy and Greece. 
AV e prolonged in vain our stay on the summit of the Peak, 
awaiting the moment when we might enjoy the view of the 
" 10 0 ' l\ ie archipelago of the Fortunate Islands :* we, how- 
T e f’ ®® cr ' ei ^ Palma, Gomera, and the Great Canary, at our 
vet. he mountains ot Laneerota, free from vapours at sun- 
rise, were soon enveloped in thick clouds. Supposing only 
an ordinary refraction, the eye takes in, in calm weather, from 
the summit of the volcano, a surface of the globe of 5700 
square leagues, equal to a fourth of the superficies of Spain 
i he question has often been agitated, whether it be possible 
Dvi P amid 1V l i°n COrlKt 0l ' Afl ' icU fraln tl,p top of this colossal 
roin ivrieT im»il 1U “STSS parts ot ‘ tliat COilst m ' c sti11 farther 
he hm-hoT? if \ 49 ’ or 50 !««««. The visual ray of 
seen o m! T Pe -H bein ?. 10 57;, cape Bojador caii be 
above the 1 i' e supposition ot its height being 200 toiscs 
r f' thf to i f! of occmL AV r e are ignorant of the height 
. L ok Mountains near cape Bojador, as well as of that 
peaiq called by navigators the Pcfiou Grande, farther to the 
m -l 113 P ro montory. If the summit of the volcano 
eneriffe were more accessible, we should observe with- 
out doubt, in certain states of the wind, the effects of an 
extraordinary refraction. On perusing what Spanish and 
n ortoguese authors relate respecting the existence of' the 
sabulous isle of San Borondon, or Antilia, we find that it is 
particularly the humid wind from west-south-west, which 
produces in these latitudes the phenomena of the mirage. 
e shall not however admit with M. Vieyra, “ that the play 
, terrestrial refractions may render visible to the iii- 
uabitants of the Canaries the islands of Cape Yerd, and even 
llle Apalachian mountains of Am erica. ”f 
a t lie small islands of the Canaries, the Rock of the East is the 
R..l 0ne , cannot he seen, even in fine weather, from the top of the 
■ , ‘ f ance 3" 5’, while that of the Salvage is only 2° P. The 
s.an of Madeira, distant 4° 29', would be visible, if its mountains were 
more than 3,000 toises high. 
H ^ .y lle American fruits, frequently thrown by the sea on the coasts of 
li ,? 1US i°* ^ eir0 aiK \ Gomera, were formerly supposed to emanate 
oi the plants of the island of San Borondon. This island, said to 
oe governed by an archbishop and six bishops, and which Father Ft ijuc 
e leved to be the image of the island of Ferro, reflected on a fog-bank, 
G 2 
