i6 
FROM PORTSMOUTH TO TENERIFFE. 
The place is defended by some old forts, but there are very few buildings or monu¬ 
ments of interest. A favourite pastime consists in riding up to the Convent of Nossa Senhora 
de Monte, whose towers rise conspicuously behind Funchal, on the back of one of the small 
steeds of the island, which gallop up the steep roads with the utmost facility, the guide 
holding on by the horse’s tail. The return journey is made on a wooden sledge, which, 
skilfully managed by the natives, shoots down the hill with the rapidity of lightning, and lands 
the traveller in the streets- of Funchal. These wooden sledges seem to be a survival of 
the ancient vehicles of the island, and the paving-stones are worn quite smooth by the constant 
friction. Excepting a small black cap, surmounted by a tall spike, there is little peculiar in 
the costume of the peasants. The latter may be styled good-looking, sometimes even handsome; 
FUNCHAL, MADEIRA. 
their black eyes and black curls and their general physiognomy proclaim a type which, if not 
aboriginal, has acquired a character of its own through long separation from the parent stem, 
and the influence of different habits, food, and climate. 
Madeira, with the adjacent islands of the Dezertas and Porto Santo, occupies the 
southern extiemity of a submarine elevation which, according to recent soundings extends 
as far as the Josephine and Gettysburg Banks off Cape St. Vincent, and may have been 
connected at one time with the plateau of Europe. The island itself, about thirty miles 
long and twelve broad, stretches from east to west, and forms the crest of a volcanic ridge, 
which rises from a depth of three miles to the surface of the sea, and about 6000 feet more 
above the level of the latter. 
