MADEIRA. 
15 
our arrangements for, serial temperature soundings ; that is to say, observing the temperature 
of the water by lowering one or more self-registering thermometers to various depths between 
the surface and the bottom of the sea. The earliest experiments of this nature brought to 
light an interesting fact, fully confirmed by subsequent observations—namely, that the solid 
body of the earth is wrapped as it were in a layer of cold water from one to two miles thick, 
and of a temperature only a few degrees above, sometimes even below, the freezing-point of 
fresh water. The only exception to this rule, as was discovered afterwards, is found in the 
smaller seas which fringe the coasts of our great continents, some of which are cut off by 
submarine ridges from the cold layer which occupies the bottom of the ocean outside ; and 
in these the water is found much warmer at all depths. This envelope of cold water reaches 
up to the surface of the sea towards latitude 6o° in both hemispheres ; and were it not that 
the heat of the sun creates a belt of warm w r ater about half-a-mile in depth, which spreads 
out on both sides of the equator as far as the 60th parallel, the whole surface of the globe 
would be reduced to the condition of the Arctic Region, and the enormous masses of ice 
which even now come down as far as the 40th parallel would be found floating between the 
tropics. So delicate and precarious are the conditions, so narrow the limits of temperature, on 
which depends the existence of all life upon our planet. 
MADEIRA. 
Land was sighted on the morning of the 2nd February, and soon the summits of 
Porto Santo and the steep barren flanks of the Dezertas came into view; but it was not until 
sunrise of the 3rd that we steamed up towards Funchal and anchored off the Loo Rock. 
The clouds, which on our approach had hung low about the mountain-tops, disappeared 
before the rays of a blazing noonday sun, and the flower and fruit laden gardens and terraces 
of Madeira lay before us in all their loveliness, rising tier upon tier from the dark shingly 
beach, until lost among the wood-clad hills which overlook the roadstead. A portion of the 
enthusiasm which the first glimpse of Madeira excites in- the traveller, may be due to the fact 
that often it is the first land sighted after his escape from the horrors of the Bay of 
Biscay; but the island possesses, in its almost perfect climate, and in the endless variety of its 
scenery, now rugged and wild, now graceful and sylvan, sufficient claims to justify all that 
has been said and written in its favour. 
The climate is, perhaps, too relaxing for a European frame, and the heat reflected from 
the steep mountain slopes facing due south must at times be excessive, though to this 
we are indebted for the golden beverage which has made Madeira a household word. 
The big boulders which strew the bed of the deep walled-in torrents that traverse Funchal 
attest the violence with which, after heavy rain, they rush down to the sea, carrying 
destruction before them. The roadstead is open to the fury of the southerly gales, and it 
happens but too often that whole fleets, unable to gain the open sea, are cast upon the beach 
of Funchal. 
c 
