112 
EBCL’IIOSS OK THE 1'EaK. 
drawn for liim on the shores of Bcctica. lie carefnllj com- 
bined the notions he acquired from travellers ; but in the 
little that has been transmitted to us of those notions, and 
in the more minute descriptions of Sebosus and Juba, there 
is no mention of volcanoes' or volcanic eruptions. Scarcely 
can wo recognise the isle of Teneriffe, and the snows with 
which the summit of the Peak is covered in winter, in the 
name of Nivaria, given to one of the Fortunate Islands 
Hence we might conclude, that the volcano at that time 
threw out no flames, if it were allowable so to interpret the 
silence of a few authors, whom wo know only by short 
fragments or dry nomenclatures. The naturalist vainly 
seeks in history for documents of the first eruptions of the 
Peak; he nowhere finds any but in the language of the 
G-uanehes, in which the word Echeyde denotes, at the same 
time, hell and the volcano of Tenerifi'e. 
Of all the written testimonies, the oldest I have found 
in relation to the activity of this volcano dates from the 
beginning of the sixteenth century. It is contained in the 
narrative of the voyage of Aloysio Cadamusto, who landed 
at the Canaries in 1505. This traveller was witness of no 
eruptions, but he positively affirms that, like Etna, this 
mountain bums without interruption, and that the fire has 
been seen by Christians held in slavery by the Guanehes of 
Teneriffe. The Peak, therefore, was not at that time in 
the state of repose in which we find it at present ; for it is 
certain that no navigator or inhabitant of Teneriffe has 
seen issue from the mouth of the Peak, I will not say 
flames, but even any smoke visible at a distance. It would 
be well, perhaps, were the funnel of the Caldera to open 
anew ; the lateral eruptions would thereby be rendered less 
violent, and the whole group of islands would be less en- 
dangered by earthquakes. 
The eruptions of the Peak have been very rare for two 
centuries past, and these long intervals appear to charac- 
terize volcanoes highly elevated. The smallest one of all, 
Stromboli, is almost always burning. At Vesuvius, the erup- 
tions are rarer than formerly, though still more frequent 
than those of Etna and the Peak of Teneriffe. The colossal 
summits of the Andes, Cotopaxi and Tungurahua, scarcely 
have an eruption o.ice in a century. We may say, that 
