across the mountains. For this purpose we engaged a number
of mules and as many muleteers, each beast having its
driver who, with his long staff armed with a pike, goads the
animal in the flank, or checks his career by a blow on the
face, to regulate the pace of the beast with his own, without
regard to the feelings of the rider. There being very little
level ground on the island, our road was either up steep acclivities,
along the edges of frightful precipices, across deep
ravines, or through swampy thickets of brushwood. The
island, however, abounds with grand and picturesque landscapes;
and many of the deep vallies exhibit magnificent
and romantic scenery. In the vicinity of the town, and along
the sea-coast, the rocks and stones are mostly formed of compact
bluish lava ; but in proportion as we advanced in height,
the volcanic products disappeared, and quartz and close-
grained schistus became more abundant. In crossing the
summit of a mountain, towards the east end of the island, we
met with the crater of an extinct volcano, which appeared to
be about three hundred yards in diameter; the bottom was
nearly covered with a species of penny-wort.
We saw only a few trees, and these were generally growing
in the deep glens, none of which were remarkable for their
size or their beauty, except the tall and elegant Ardisia excel.sa.
Some large trees of a species of cedar, with which the island
is supposed to have once been covered, are said to be still
growing in the ravines among the higher mountains ; but we
did not meet with any of them. The general scarcity of soil,
indeed, which prevails in every part of the island, except, in
particular situations, where rills of water may have carried
down, in the course of ages, an accumulation of loose earthy
particles, would seem to contradict the common opinion that
its name was given in consequence of the vast forests with
which it originally abounded. There certainly is not the least
appearance that such has ever been the case: thickets of
underwood might have covered several parts of the brow of
the mountain, and such patches of ground in the glens as are
now converted into vineyards and orchards; but there never
could have been such forests and thickets as to justify the
idea of the conflagration having lasted for seven years, as we
are told by Portugueze historians. The native shrubby plants
that chiefly prevail are broom, cytisus, whortleberry, laurel,
myrtle, brambles, euphorbia, cactus, a fine scented jessamine,
and wild olives. It was these which, viewing, them from the
ship, our imaginations had transformed into groves of oranges,
lemons, citrons, and other fruit trees that are congenial with
such a climate. A species of lavender, a stock, and several
of our cultivated plants, are found in their natural state.
The common fern is abundant, so likewise is polypody,
maiden-hair, and other cryptogamous plants. Wormwood,
trefoil, nightshade, bugloss, fox-glove, Saint John's wort,
convolvulus, plaintairi, and many of our grasses grow on the
sides of the lulls, wherever there happens to be the smallest
quantity of soil to fix their roots.
The cultivated plants are vines, oranges, lemons, citrous,
figs, bananas, guavas, apricots, peaches, and European fruits,
besides good walnuts and chesnuts. The island produces
wheat, barley, and ry e ; but more than two-thirds of the grain
consumed is imported from the Azores or Western Islands,
d 2