of the first thing’s Ave saAV Avas a locomotiA'e steam-
engine bringing doAAOi blocks of lava, to satiate, if
possible, th e voracity of the sea, and enable them to
linish in peace a Amry fine hreakAAmter, for Aidiose construction
every box of oranges exported has paid a
tax for some years past. The Avild south-Avesteriy
storms of AAonter pull doAvn th e pier nearly as fast as
it is built, and the engineer has adopted the plan of
simply bringing an unlimited supply of rough blocks,
and leaAung the Avaves to Avork th eir Avicked Avill Avith
them and arrange them as they choose. In th is way
the blocks seem to he driven into the positions in
Avhich they can best resist the particular forces to
Avhich they are exposed, and they are subsiding
into a solid foundation on which th e building work
is making satisfactory progress. Po n ta Delgada is
much larger th a n H o r t a ; the streets are wider,
and there are many more good-sized houses. The
churches are numerous and large, h n t commonplace
and immemorial; the only one Avhich has any
claim to a monumental character is an old church
near the centre of the toAAm, Avhich Avas formerly
attached to a Jesu it convent.
The market at Ponta Delgada does not appear to
he very good, and, particularly in the short supply
of A'egetahles and fruit, it seems to suffer from its
distance from Pico.
On the morning of Saturday, the 5th of July, a
merry party of ahont a dozen of us started from
T’onta Delgada to see the celebrated valley and lake
of the Purnas.
As the croAV flies, the Purnas village, the fashionable
Avatering-place of San Miguel, Avhere the hot
springs and baths are, is not inore th an eighteen
miles from Ponta Delgada, b u t the road is circuitous
and hilly, and the entire distance to be gone over AAms
not much less than th irty miles. We engaged four
carriages, each draAvn by three mules abreast, and
Avarranted to take ns the AAdiole distance, if we chose,
Avithout drawing bridle.
Fin, g.—CriiplomerUi japonica, in the garden of M. .fosé do Canto, San lligiud.
(From a photograph.)
The first part of our route lay through the long
drawn-out suburbs of the town, past one or tAvo
churches without much character, very like those in
second-class toAvns in Spain and Portugal. "We then
turned toAV’ards the interior, and Avalked up a long