considerable, eacli St. Micliaers orange of good quality
delivered in London costs rather more than a halfpenny.
The price increases enormously as the season
goes on. Several varieties are cultivated, and one
variety ripens a comparatively small number of large
fruit, without seeds, towards the middle of April,
Avhich *hring sometimes ten times as mnch as the
finest of the ordinary oranges in the height of the
season.
At length, at an elevation of six hundred feet or
so, the Avails of the quintas were passed, and we
emerged into the open country. The island is divided
into two somewhat unequal portions, an eastern and
a Avestern. To the east Ave have high volcanic ridges,
surrounding the picturesque valley of the Lnrnas,
and stretching, in rugged peaks and precipitous
clefts, to the extremity of the island. The western
portion culminates in the Caldeira (or crater) of
the Sete-Cidades, probably one of the most striking
pieces of volcanic scenery to be met with
anyAvhere.
BetAveen the tAvo there is a kind of neck of loAver
land, beds of lava and scoriæ and a congregation of
small volcanic cones, Avonderfully sharp and perfect,
and Avith all the appearance of being comparatively
recent. It is across this neck that the road passes
to Furnas, and as it wound among the wooded dells
between the cones Ave had a splendid view of the
northern coast Avith its long line of headlands—lava
fioAVS separated hy deep hays radiantly blue and
Avhite under the sun and wind and passing up
into deep) wooded dells. Beneath us, at the point
Avhere the road turned along the northern shore.
lay the pretty little town of Ribeira Grande, tlic
second on the island.
This middle belt of lower land is, perhaps, Avitb
the exception of the land immediately round the
towns, the best cultivated part of the island. The
volcanic cones are covered with a voiing i?roAvth of