not distinguish its southern or western declivity. M. Escolar assured me they are similar to, though more rapid than, the side by which we ascended: from this side flowed the balsatic lavas of 1704 and of the last eruption in 1797: this latter stream of lava flowed in a remarkably slow current, for not withstanding the sharp descent of the mountain, and the length of the lava not exceeding three miles, several days elapsed before it reached the spot where it stopped; how little fluid this lava must have been is evident, when it is remembered that the lava of Vesuvius in 1794, which destroyed Torre del Greco, reached the Sea from the bottom of the cone, a distance of eight miles, in little more than six hours. M. Escolar further told me that there is on this south-western side of the Peak an ancient lava, at present not at all decomposed, of several miles in length, and in a perfect state of vitrification: the whole of this stream has the appearance of obsidian. All these lavas appear to have flowed from the bottom of the cone, and to have run from its base in the same manner as that of Vesuvius in 1794, the crater of which vomited out ash and pumice, and large pieces of rock, while the current of lava issued from its side. It is not, however, improbable that the cone itself is of anterior formation to this vitrified lava, as the summit of the Peak is similar to the lava of the Mal Pais, and that being porphyritic is considered as of more ancient date than the one above-mentioned, which is basaltic. If one might hazard a conjecture upon a subject where the data are so few, I should be inclined to suspect that the Peak itself, as well as

the whole of the country around it which forms its base, were produced by that immense crater called Las Canales, the shape and magnitude of which I have before taken notice of when traversing the pumice plains; it is also well worthy of remark that there is no volcano in action at all to be compared in size of crater to those that are extinct. The ancient crater of Vesuvius is considerably larger than the present, and those in the vicinity of Naples, the eruptions of which probably created that district of Italy, are of enormous extent. The crater of the Camaldoli is somewhat more than two leagues in circumference, and the superficies of the Canales is estimated at 12 square leagues. These vast craters were probably capable of ejecting from their bosom those stupendous beds of lava, which being so much more extensive than any that have flowed from more recent eruptions, have led some persons to deny the former to be the effects of a central fire. That all the Island of Teneriffe was volcanically produced no man who examines it can have any doubt, and though the smallness of the existing crater of the Peak may lead one to imagine that it alone could not be the effective cause of all the phænomena, yet the innumerable volcanoes on all sides of the island, the appearance of Las Canales, and its elevation, are able to account for the extent of the streams and beds of lava, and of the deposits of tufa and pumice, of which the island is composed. Having no data to proceed upon but what is given by the measurement of the eye, it isnot easy to determine the magnitude of the cone at its base; one

may say at venture, it is about three miles in circumference, though towards the S. S. W. the descent is much more abrupt, and the plain from which the cone springs not perceptible. The view from the summit is stupendous: we could plainly discover the whole form of the island, and we made out distinctly three or four of the islands, which together are called the Canaries; we could not however see Lancerotte or Fuerteventura, though we were told that other travellers had distinguished them all.

From this spot the central chain of mountains that runs from southwest to north-east is easily to be distinguished. These, with the succession of fertile and woody valleys, commencing from San Ursula and ending at Las Horcas, with the long line of precipitous lava rocks that lay on the right of our ascent, and which traverse that part of the island, running from east to west from their point of departure at the Canales to where they end in an abrupt headland on the coast, with their forests and villages and vineyards, the port with the shipping in the roads, the towers of Orotava with their spires glittering as the morning sun burst upon them, afforded a cheerful contrast to the streams of lava, the mounds of ash and pumice, and the sulphurated rock on which we had taken our seat. The sensation of extreme height was in fact one of the most extraordinary I ever felt; and though I did not find the pain in my chest arising from the rarity of the atmosphere, near so acute as on the mountains of Switzerland, yet there was a keenness in the air, independent of the cold, that

created no small uneasiness in the lungs. The respiration became short and quick, and repeated halts were found necessary. The idea also of extreme height was to me more determinate and precise than on the mountains of Switzerland; and though the immediate objects of vision were not so numerous, yet as the ascent is more rapid, the declivity sharper, and there is here no mountain like Mount Blanc towering above you, the 12,000 feet above the level of the sea appeared considerably more than a similar elevation above the lake of Geneva. We remained at the summit about three quarters of an hour: our ascent had cost us a labour of four hours, as we left the Estancia at ten minutes before three, and reached the top of the peak before seven; many indeed of our balts were needless, and M. Escolar told me that he had twice ascended to the summit in somewhat less than three hours, Our thermometer, which was gruduated to the scale of Fahrenheit, was during our ascent as follows: at Orotava, at eight in the morn ing, 74°; at six in the evening, at La Estancia, 50°; at one in the following morning 42°; at La Cueva, at half-past four 32°; at the bottom of the cone 36°; at the top of the Peak, one hour and a half after sun-rise, 38°. The descent down the cone is difficult from its extreme rapidity, and from the fall of large stones which loosen themselves from the beds of pumice.— Having at last scrambled to the bottom, we pursued our march down the other course of the lava, that is to say down its westerly side, having ascended its eastern. The ravines and rents in this

stream of lava are deeper and more formidable; the descent into them was always painful and troublesome, often dangerous in some places we let ourselves down from rock to rock. I can form no opinion why there should be these strange irregularities in the surface of this lava; in places it resembles what sailors term the trough of the sea, and I can compare it to nothing but as if the sea in a storm had by some force become on a sudden stationary, the waves retaining their swell. As we again approached La Cueva there is a singular steep valley, the depth of which from its two walls caunot be less than 100 to 150 feet, the lava lying in broken ridges one upon the other, similar to the masses of granite rock that time and decay have tumbled down from the top of the Alps; and, except from the scoria, or what Milton calls "the Fiery Surge," they in no degree bear the marks of having rolled as a stream of liquid matter. This current, like that of the eastward branch, has no resemblance to any lavas I have seen elswhere; it is hardly at all decomposed, full of laminæ of feldspar, the fracture conchoidal,

and the texture porphyritic; the colour brown like that of the other branch; it is but slightly cellular, and contains no extraneous sub

stances.

We descended the pumice hill with great rapidity almost at a run, and arrived at La Estancia in little more than two hours. We then mounted our mules, and following the track by which we had ascended the preceding day, we reached about four o'clock the country house of our hospitable friend Mr. Barry.

The difficulties of this enterprise have been much exaggerated: the ascent on foot is not a labour of more than four hours at most, and the whole undertaking not to be compared in point of fatigue to what the traveller undergoes who visits the Alps. That the ascent must be hazardous in a storm of hail and snow there can be no doubt, but to cross Salisbury plain may sometimes be dangerous. Yet stripped of poetical terrors, and divested of the eloquent description of some writers, there is perhaps no mountain in Europe, the ascent of which does not furnish more difficulties than the Peak of Teneriffe.

MISCELLANIES.

JUDGE FLETCHER'S CHARGE, Delivered to the Grand Jury at the County of Wexford, at the Summer Assizes, 1814.

Gentlemen of the Grand Jury; IT is with sincere pleasure I congratulate you upon the appearance of the state of your county; I say appearance, because I have no means whatever of knowing any thing upon the subject, except from the calendar now before me. In that calendar I find very few numbers indeed, two, or three, or four crimes, of general occurrence in the country; one homicide, which appears to have been committed certainly with circumstances of atrocity; but, as far as I can collect from the examinations, originating in private malice and individual revenge; and not connected with any of those disturbances of which we have heard so much, in different parts of the kingdom.

Gentlemen, it is matter of great congratulation, that after a period of thirty years, (at the commencement of which I first knew the county of Wexford), I have reason to say, it is precisely in the situation in which it was then, Vol. LVI.

except as to an increase of wealth and population, and an improve ment in agriculture, which has ameliorated its condition and multiplied its resources. The county

of Wexford was then a moral curiosity. When other parts of the country were lawless and disturbed, this county had a peasantry industrious in their habits, social in their disposition, satisfied with their state, and amenable to the laws, cultivating their farms with an assiduity which insured a competency. Their conduct was peaceful; their apparel whole; their morals improved; their lives spent in the frequent interchange of mutual good offices. It was a state of things which I reflect upon with pleasure. Each succeeding circuit showed me wild heaths and uncultivated tracts, brought under the dominion of the plough, and producing corn for the sustenance of man. As it was then, so it continued for many years; until those unhappy disturbances, which burst out in this county with such a sudden and unexpected explosion. I knew what the state of things was then, and how that explosion was produced. Professionally I knew it, because I enjoyed peculiar advantages of

2L

ܢ܂