86 
DESCENT FROM THE TEAK 
Notwithstanding the lieat we felt in onr feet on the edge 
of the crater, the cone of ashes remains covered with snow 
during several months in winter. It is probable, that under 
the cap of snow considerable hollows are found, like those 
existing under the glaciers of Switzerland, the temperature 
of which is constantly less elevated than that of the soil on 
which they repose. The cold and violent wind, which blew 
from the time of sunrise, induced us to seek shelter at the 
foot of the Piton. Our hands and faces were nearly frozen, 
while our boots were burnt by the soil on which we walked. 
We descended in the space of a few minutes the Sugar-loaf 
which we had scaled with so much toil ; and this rapidity 
was in part involuntary, for we often rolled down on the 
ashes. It was with regret that wo quitted this solitude, 
this domain where Nature reigns in all her majesty. We 
consoled ourselves with the hope of once again visiting 
the Canary Islands, hut this, like many oilier plans we then 
formed, has never been executed. 
We traversed tho Mai pays but slowly ; for the foot finds 
no sure foundation on tho loose blocks of lava. Nearer the 
station of the rocks, the descent becomes extremely difficult ; 
the compact short-swarded turf is so slippery, that we were 
obliged to incline our bodies continually backward, in order 
to avoid falling. In the sandy plain of Ectama, the thermo- 
meter rose to 22'5° ; and this heat seemed to us suffocating 
in comparison with the cold, which we had suffered from the 
air on the summit of the volcano. Wc wore absolutely 
without water ; our guides, not satisfied with drinking clan- 
destinely the littlo supply of malmsey wine, for which we 
were indebted to Don Oologan’s kindness, had broken our 
water jars. Happily the boltle which contained tho air of 
the crater escaped unhurt. 
We at length enjoyed the refreshing breeze in the beauti- 
ful region of tho arborescent erica and fern ; and wc were 
enveloped in a thick bed of clouds stationary at six hundred 
toises above tho plain. The clouds having dispersed, we re- 
marked a phenomenon which afterwards became familiar to 
us on the declivities of the Cordilleras. Small currents of 
air chased trains of cloud with unequal velocity, and in oppo- 
site directions : they bore the appearance of streamlets of 
wafer in rapid motion and flowing in all directions, amidst a 
