A VISIT TO MADEIRA AND THE CANARY ISLANDS. 123 
and may thus possibly account for a paucity of marine life 
near to the land. Once the dredge brought up an Echinus, 
with very long black spines, at which the sailors all looked 
aghast and entreated us not to touch it as the long moving 
spines were considered very venomous. The spines were 
about eight inches in length when fresh, but contracted 
very much in drying. Coral is found round the Islands, 
but not at the accessible parts where we dredged, though 
our boatmen always vaguely said that ‘‘ to-morrow”’ they 
could take us to places where we could get any quantity. 
But the Spanish to-morrow is a symbol of procrastination 
not to be seriously taken in a literal sense, and to-morrow’s 
corals were never found. The’ tow-net at Grand Canary 
from whatever cause yielded much smaller results than 
at Madeira and Teneriffe, nor did we find any surface 
organisms peculiar to the locality not found in the other 
islands. 
Taking a sun-protected carriage, we made a long day’s 
excursion into the interior of Grand Canary, to visit the 
famous crater the Caldera, and the very interesting cave 
dwellings of Atalaya, inhabited by the descendants of the 
ancient Guanches. A winding well-made road led us to a 
considerable ascent, commanding extensive views, with 
Teneriffe and its superb Peak on one side, and on the 
other a distant view of the Island of Fuerteventura and 
its two rounded heights, this island being only about sixty 
miles from the African coast. 
Banana orchards and orange groves we passed in plenty, 
and fig trees grew at the road sides everywhere. Prickly 
Pears, Aloes, and Cacti are used in place of hedges, as a 
border to the roads, answering the purpose admirably. 
When steaming across to Grand Canary, at many miles 
distance, we were struck with what looked like long rows 
of white tents at various places. They proved to be large 
