if we may give the name of port to a road, in which the vessels are obliged to put to sea whenever the winds blow violently from the northwest. It is impossible to speak of Orotava, without recalling to the remembrance of the scientific world the name of Mr. Cologan, whose house at all times was open to travellers of every nation. Several members of this respectable family have been educated at London and at Paris. Don Bernardo Cologan unites the most ardent zeal for the good of his country to various parts of solid instruction. We are agreeably surprised to find, in a group of islands near the coasts of Africa, that urbanity, that taste for knowledge, that love of the arts, which is thought to belong exclusively to a small part of Europe.

We could have wished to have sojourned for some time in Mr. Cologan's house, and visited with him the charming scenery of St. Juan de la Rambla and of Rialexo de Abaxo*. But on a voyage such as that we had undertaken, the present is but little enjoyed. Continually haunted by the fear of not executing the designs of the morrow, we live in perpetual uneasiness. Persons who are passionately fond of nature and the arts, feel the same sensations, when they travel through Switzerland and Italy. Enabled

• The last of these two villages is placed at the foot of the Jofty mountain of Tygayga.

to see but a small portion of the objects which allure them, they are disturbed in their enjoyments by the restraints they impose on themselves at every step.

On the morning of the 21st of June, we were already on the road for the summit of the volcano. Mr. Le Gros, whose attentions were unwearied, Mr. Lalande, secretary of the French Consulate at Santa Cruz, and the English gardener at Durasno, shared in the fatigues of this excursion. The day was not very fine, and the summit of the peak, which is generally visible at Orotava from sunrise till ten o'clock, was covered with thick clouds. There is only one path to the volcano, by the Villa de Orotava, the Plain of Spartium, and the Malpais; it is this which was taken by father Feuillée, Borda, La Billardiere, Barrow, and all late travellers, who have made but a short stay at Teneriffe. In an excursion to the peak, as well as in those which are commonly made in the valley of Chamouni and to the top of Etna, where we are forced to follow the guide, we see almost nothing but what has been already seen and described by former travellers.

We were agreeably surprised by the contrast between the vegetation of this part of Teneriffe, and that of the environs of Santa Cruz. Under the influence of a cool and humid climate, the ground was covered with beautiful verdure;

while on the road from Santa Cruz to Laguna the plants exhibited nothing but pods emptied of their seeds. Near the port of Santa Cruz, the strength of the vegetation is an obstacle to geological researches. We went on foot over two small hills, which rise in the form of bells. Observations made at Vesuvius, and in Auvergne, lead us to think, that these paps owe their origin to lateral eruptions of the great volcano. The hill called Montannita de la Villa seems indeed to have already emitted lavas; and according to the tradition of the Guanches this eruption took place in 1430. Colonel Franqui assured Borda, that the place is still to be seen whence the melted matter issued; and that the ashes, which covered the ground adjacent, were not yet productive*. Wherever the rock appears, we discovered basaltic amygdaloid

co

* This fact is taken from a manuscript now at Paris, at the depôt of the Charts of the Marine. It bears the title of Résumé des Operations de la Campagne de la Boussole (in 1776) pour determiner les Positions géographiques des Côtes d'Espagne & de Portugal sur l'Ocean, d'une Partie des Côtes occidentales de l'Afrique, & des Iles Canaries, par le Chevalier de Borda. This is the manuscript of which Mr. Fleurieu speaks in the notes, which he has added to the Voyage of Marchand, vol. ii, p. 11, and which M. de Borda had communicated to me previous to my departure. As I have extracted some important observations from it, which have never been published, I shall cite it in this work under the title of Manuscript du Depôt.

+ Basaltartiger mandelstein. Werner.

vered with hardened clay *, which contains rapilli, or fragments of pumice stone. This last formation resembles the tufas of Pausilippo, and the strata of Puzzolana, which I found in the valley of Quito, at the foot of the volcano of Pichincha. The amygdaloid has very long pores, like the superior strata of the lavas of Vesuvius, arising probably from the action of an elastic fluid forcing it's way through the matter in fusion. Notwithstanding these analogies, I must here, repeat, that in all the low region of the peak of Teneriffe, on the side of Orotava, I have met with no flow of lavas, no current, the limits of which were strongly marked. Torrents and inundations change the surface of the globe, and when a great number of currents of lava meet and spread over a plain, as I have scen at Vesuvius, in the Atrio dei Cavalli, they seem to be confounded together, and wear the appearance of real strata.

The villa de Orotava has a pleasant aspect at a distance, from the great abundance of waters which run through the principal streets. The spring of Agua mansa, collected in two large reservoirs, turns several mills, and is afterward discharged among the vineyards of the adjacent hills. The climate is still more refreshing at the villa than at the port of La Cruz, from the in

• Bimstein-conglomerat. W.

fluence of the breeze, which blows strong after ten in the morning. The water, which has been dissolved in the air at a higher temperature, frequently precipitates itself, and renders the cli mate very foggy. The villa is nearly 160 toises (312 metres) above the surface of the ocean, consequently 200 toises less than the ground on which Laguna is built; it is observed also, that the same kind of plants flower a month later in this latter place.

Orotava, the ancient Taoro of the Guanches, is placed on a very steep declivity; the streets seem deserted; the houses, solidly built, but of a gloomy appearance, belong almost all to the nobility, who are accused of being extremely haughty, and who give themselves the pompous title of the doze casas (the twelve houses). We passed along a lofty aqueduct, lined with a great number of fine ferns; and visited several gardens, in which the fruit trees of the north of Europe are mingled with orange trees, pomegranate, and date trees. We were assured, that these last were as little productive here as on the coasts of Cumana. Although we were acquainted, from the narratives of so many travellers, with the dragon-tree of the garden of Mr. Franqui, we were not the less struck with it's enormous magnitude. We were told, that the trunk of this tree, which is mentioned in several very ancient documents as marking the boundaries of a field,