A WINTER IN THE AZORES VOL. 2

1·125.3 MB·English

by  N.A.

Gn.

Lthrarian
Wetarpara Joykcisnas public

Litrasy
Govt. of Wer Beoga)

WINTER IN THE AZORES.

CHAPTER I.

We scaled
A steep ascent: and reached a dreary plain
With a tumultuous waste of huge hill tops
Before us; — which I paced
Dispirited: when all at once, behold! .
Beneath our feet, a little lowly vale,
A lowly vale, and yct uplifted high
Among the mountains; even as if the spot
Had been by eldest time
So placed — to be shut out from all the world.

Tue Excursion.

Visit to the Caldeira at Fayal. — Appearance of the mountain.
—Firat view of the Caldeira, —Field flowers.— Scarcity of
wood.—Opal.— Deficiency of water 5 tts causes, and the remedy.
— Island of Ascension.

Fayan, May 14,— As the morning was pro-
mising and the mountain clear of clouds, we
VOL. II. B
2 FAYAL,

started with a party, some on foot and some on
asses, to see the Caldeira, which is one of the
natural beauties of Fayal.

Speaking generally of the island, it is a low
cone, with a lozenge-shaped base; and in the top
of this cone, which is nearly in the centre of the
island, the Caldeira is sunk. It is frequently co-
yered with 2 cap of clouds, which, although they
may shut out the view from the summit, and ob-
scure the depths of the crater, yet fully compensate
for theso hindrances to impatient travellers, by
the floating shadows which they throw upon the
mountains, by the strength of colouring which they
borrow from the morning and the setting sun, and
by the varied delicacy with which these colours
are reflected from their surfaces upon the hill-side.
To-day, however, the mountain had doffed his cap,
and from the shore to the summit was enriched
by the yellow light of a hot morning sun.

After passing the scattered houses on the out-
fkirts of the town, the road lay along the valley
of the Flemings, through which sometimes a
river runs, whose rocky bottom was now quite
dry. Having crossed this, we began the gradual
and easy ascent of the mountain, at first through
fields, and then over heath and grass, inter-
ASCENT TO THE CALDEIRA. 3

spersed with a few wild flowers; among which, a
bright-belled heath, of deep scarlet, was scattered
among the herbage, that resembled in colour the
fruit of the wild strawberry, and was entirely
different from the common heath so abundant in
these islands; the quiet unobtrusive blossoms of
which seldom attract the eye. Now and then
a woman or a girl tripped past us on her way
down the mountain, carrying on her head a
heavy load of wood; a few scattered cows and
heifers stopped grazing and stared round, or
started off with their tails awry, when we walked
so close as to disturb them; and as we neared
the topmost edge of the crater, a group of idle
wood-cutters, with their figures clearly cut out
against the sky, lay and stood about, surrounded
by their wives and children, who squatted on the
ground, and tried in vain to silence a yelping
Azorean cur, which ran forwards to bark and
bite, as naturally as if he had been at the cot-
tager’s own door.

As is usual in ascending all mountainous
ground, we passed one ridge after another, wish-
ing and thinking each was the last, (for the
dull succession of hill upon hill, clothed only
with rough grass, was without variety,) when,

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