32 
FROM BERMUDAS TO CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
* 
the white walls of a fortress or castle perched upon the summit of a rocky precipice—first 
attracted our attention by its extraordinary shape. The original cone has been stripped in 
course of time of its outer covering, leaving nothing 
behind but the fire-baked walls of the crater, so that the 
whole looks like a huge chimney thrown up on the margin 
of the sea. The interior of the volcano is filled up to 
a short distance from the rim, and the bottom of the 
crater, visible from our deck, seemed to be covered with trees. The vertical walls, as they rise 
above the tree-tops, present one of the most remarkable sights in nature. 
The other extinct volcano stands at the western entrance to Horta Bay, and is connected 
with the land by a low isthmus, across which 
the traveller obtains the first glimpse of the 
well-known port of Fayal. It affords on a 
small scale an example of an occurrence 
frequently observed in volcanic regions, when 
one side of a volcano, having broken down, gives access to the sea, which, as it flows into 
the crater, transforms it into a basin, where boats and even large ships may find shelter from 
the stormy seas outside. 
A great disappointment was in store for us. We had hardly rounded Guia Head and 
anchored in the beautiful Bay of Horta, when, on communicating with the shore, we learned 
that the island had been ravaged by small-pox for several months. So the excursions planned 
HORTA, FAYAL. 
during the days when the restless waves kept us prisoners within the wooden walls of the 
“Challenger” had to be given up; but we found some consolation in the sight of pretty Horta, 
with its palatial convents and background of wooded hills. The view from its streets of the 
great cone of Pico, rising just in front of the bay to a height of 7600 feet, must be magnificent; 
and one might readily be persuaded to take up quarters in the “ Carmelitas ” or at the 
“ Collegio,” and to spend some years in this Atlantic Eden. Excluded from it by this fell 
