it is delightfully refreshing. For delicate persons, however, it is a little too strong, and while I was at Orotava I came across one or two invalids who had caught cold owing to this cause, and I have no doubt many others suffer, though perhaps unconsciously, from its effects. This inconvenience might easily be remedied by partly closing the north side of the verandah with glass, an arrangement which would give invalids the advantage of the sun without exposure to the wind. The Grand Hotel also includes three other establishments which, though separate in themselves, are in organic relation with the central one just described. These (Fonda Marqués, Casa Zamora, and Casa Buenavista) between them can accommodate a hundred guests, so that the total number which can be housed by the Sanatorium is about a hundred and twenty. A new hotel which is being built at Orotava by the same company is now rapidly approaching completion. It will contain accommodation for nearly two hundred visitors, and great efforts are being made to make it comfortable for invalids. It is situated at a level of three hundred feet above the sea, and among other advantages there will be a beautiful verandah absolutely sheltered from the north-east wind, but exposed to the warm rays of the sun. Although this establishment will have advantages of its own, it is to be hoped that the present one will not be given up, for it is certainly rather warmer than the new building will be. Another hotel under different management is, I understand, about to be built at Orotava; it will be most healthily situated at La Paz, on a pleasant site at about the same elevation above the sea as the one just mentioned, but rather farther from the town. It will accommodate about one hundred and fifty visitors. This establishment will not, however, be available till the winter of 1890. Next autumn a boarding-house will also be opened under the management of a Swiss who has lived in England for many years. The several private villas already described can be taken for longer or shorter periods at fair rates. It is clear from all this that the Tenerifeans are determined that the future of their island as a health resort and playground shall not be compromised by the want of accommodation for visitors.

I found Orotava so comfortable that I stayed there most of the time I was at Tenerife, and did not explore the island to any great extent. In my rambles, however, I paid a visit to a place called Icod de los Vinos, which was once the centre of a flourishing wine trade, but which has now fallen on evil days, commercially speaking. It is about twenty miles to the west of Puerto and stands at a height of some seven hundred feet above the sea. It is beautifully situated on the northern slope of the Peak, but though it has been called one of the 'pearls' of Tenerife, its attractions seemed to me to be sufficiently summed up in the words of Justice Shallow, 'Marry, good air.' I had intended to visit the Grand Canary, but, as I have said, I found my Capua at Orotava, so far as the wandering instinct was VOL. XXVI.-No. 149.

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concerned. I met a number of travellers, however, who had come on to Orotava from Las Palmas, the capital of Gran Canaria. The accommodation there is scanty and very inferior to that at Orotava. No hotels have at present been built on high ground, the new hotel which is in process of construction being situated like its predecessor, the oldest in the Canary Islands, on the sandy shore which stretches along the coast. As a consequence of this there is a great deal of dust, which is very trying to invalids. The interior of the island has not been developed nearly so much as Tenerife, and as far as I am aware there are no comfortable villas in the higher parts of the island, so that the invalid is practically confined to the sea-level. The climate of the Grand Canary is, however, rather drier than that of Tenerife, and I have therefore no doubt that it suits some persons better.

The natives of Tenerife struck me as particularly fine specimens of the human race. The men are strong, well-grown, and healthylooking, and many of the women are very beautiful; but those of the lower class, owing to their being so much occupied in field labour, become old and worn in appearance at a comparatively early age; while the ladies, from want of exercise, soon lose their slimness of figure. Dark eyes and complexions prevail, but a trace of the extinct Guanches is often seen in light-coloured eyes and ruddy hair. The peasantry wear a light cotton jacket and short trousers, but each man has a thick Witney blanket, which is worn as a cloak when the weather is wet or cold. Everybody smokes-urchins of five or six seeming to find as much relish in their cigarettes as their fathers. The outdoor life which is led in these privileged regions makes this apparently excessive indulgence in tobacco harmless. Tobacco is grown in Tenerife, and still more extensively in the Grand Canary, and this might easily be developed into an important industry; but it is not encouraged by the Spanish Government, lest the importation of a cheap tobacco from the Canaries should injure the monopoly in the peninsula. Potatoes grow in such abundance that their exportation to England would be a profitable industry. New potatoes could be sent to Covent Garden in time for Christmas. The soil is so fertile that three crops can be raised in the year without manure. Vines could also no doubt be again cultivated on a large scale, but the wine of the Canaries-whatever may have been its reputation in past days-is now neither agreeable to the palate nor comforting to the stomach. I was informed by a native that the two great advantages of Tenerife are its freedom from marshes and from poisonous snakes. Whilst fully admitting the importance of these negative features, the island has other and better titles to fame as a health-resort-as I shall now proceed to show.

With regard to the climate of Tenerife as a whole, there are three great points which can hardly fail to strike every one who stays in the island for any length of time. These are: (1) the relative

uniformity of temperature, not only throughout the different parts of the day, but through the various seasons of the year; (2) the dryness of the air; and (3) the variety of climates within a comparatively small area.

In point of mildness Tenerife compares favourably not only with all European health resorts but with Madeira, the mean annual temperature being between 66° and 67° F. in the former and 63° F. in the latter. At Puerto de Orotava, which faces the sea to the north at an elevation of fifty feet, and which is protected by mountains on the other sides, the mean annual temperature is about 68°; it ranges from 62° in January and February to 76° in July, the extreme difference between winter and summer being therefore not more than fourteen degrees. At Nice the corresponding difference is nearly thirty dregees, whilst even at Algiers it is between twenty-three and twenty-four. The mean temperature during the five months of November, December, January, February and March is between 63° and 64°, the mean range between maximum and minimum being about eleven degrees. This degree of variation is maintained with remarkable steadiness throughout the year, the average temperature in spring being 64°, in summer nearly 71°, in autumn between 69° and 70°, and in winter a little over 60°. The average range of temperature throughout the year therefore does not exceed from ten to eleven degrees. From some careful records of meteorological changes at Puerto de Orotava, for which I am indebted to Dr. Perez, it appears that in January of the present year the mean temperature at 9 A.M. was 61.2, at 2 P.M. 62.7, and at 9 P.M. 57-9; in February the corresponding means were 60·1, 62·5, and 53·5; in March 64.3, 66, and 59.7; and in April, from the 1st to the 25th inclusive, 64.5, 68.2, and 56.5. Careful observations made by Mr. Borham, which that gentleman has with great courtesy placed at my disposal, show that at his villa San Antonio, above Port Orotava, and 346 feet above the sea-level, the mean temperature in November (1888) was at 9 A.M. 66.3, and at 9 P.M. 63.1; in December the corresponding figures were 60.8 and 59-2; in January (1889) 58.9 and 56-4; in February 60.6 and 56.6, and in March 61.8 and 59.4, giving a mean variation between the morning and the evening of 2.8. In November the absolute lowest temperature in the shade was 54.9, in December 51.8, in January 51, in February 50, and in March 49-1; but the mean minimum was for November 59.3, for December 55.4, for January 53, for February 52.7, and for March 54.1. The climate is always better before Christmas than it is afterwards, November and December being perfect. In the early months of the year the weather usually becomes a little unsettled. As a proof of the mildness of the season last December, I may mention that the visitors were able to sit with perfect comfort in the verandah of the Grand Hotel, which, as already remarked, is open on both sides, after a late

dinner on Christmas Day. At Villa de Orotava the mean annual temperature is between 66° and 67°, at Santa Cruz between 70° and 71°, and at Laguna about 62°. The wonderful equability of the temperature is largely due to the fact that on most days, just as the sun's rays threaten to make themselves oppressively felt, the trade wind furnishes a refreshing breeze from the north-east to temper their heat. This wind blows every day, but rarely with violence except sometimes in March. In summer and part of the autumn it is scarcely strong enough to shake the withered leaves from the trees. The canopy of cloud that hangs about the hills during the greater part of the day also affords protection. The barometric pressure is also extraordinarily uniform, and violent atmospheric disturbances are almost unknown. Dr. Grabham of Madeira, however, informs me that he found the land breeze blowing at the rate of four miles an hour at Orotava in February 1887, showing great terrestrial radiation and rapid cooling it is inaportant to note that there is hardly any difference in the temperature between the open air and the inside of the house.

No fires or other means of generating artificial warmth are used by the natives, but there are occasionally days on which English people would enjoy a small fire-especially in the evening. It need scarcely be pointed out that delicate persons feel chilly at a temperature which is pleasant and invigorating to the healthy, the slight difference between the sunshine of day and the shade of evening being disagreeably felt by invalids. Both the new hotel will be provided with fireplaces in the public rooms and in many of the sitting rooms.

The dryness of the atmosphere is not less remarkabre than the mildness and equability of the temperature. The meat relative humidity of the air at Port Orotava from November to April was ascertained by Dr. Hjalmar Öhrvall, of Upsala, to be 653 at 84.M., 60.1 at 2 P.M., and 69.1 at 9 P.M., giving a mean of 64.9 (saturation being expressed as 100). The average rainfall is about 13 inches, and the average number of rainy days in the year, taking the mean of ten years, is only 51. During the winter of 1883-4, a season of extraordinary and almost unparalleled wetness at Tenerife, there were -seventy-eight rainy days, but the average number in ordinary winters is only 41. In January of the present year rain (counting every drizzle) fell on fourteen days, the rainfall for the whole month being 2.39 inches; in February it rained on ten days, the amount for the month being 1.57 inch; in March the corresponding numbers were eight days and 1.15 inch; and from April 1 to 25, rain fell on nine days, the amount being 55 inch.3 The air is, as a rule, so dry that a piece of paper can be exposed all night without losing its crispness. The chief advantage, however, of Tenerife as a health resort is

Mr. Borham's tables which have already been referred to are here appended. The figures, which, it is needless to say, are absolutely trustworthy, give, as it were, a summary of the climate of Tenerife during the past winter, which was considered

the facility for frequent change of air and scene which it offers within a very small area. In this I think Tenerife stands alone among the Canaries, and is not equalled by Madeira. Custom cannot stale the infinite variety of climate which this multum in rapvo of an island contains within the narrow circle of its own shores. If the Valley of Orotava is too relaxing, there is Laguna only a few hours' drive away, which is as bracing as Eastbourne, without its east winds; if Puerto is not warm enough, there is Santa Cruz with the air of a hothouse tempered by sea breezes. One may say the various climates rise tier on tier as you go upwards from the sea; with each thousand feet of elevation we pass into a different climatological stratum, the air of course becoming colder and more bracing as we go up. These different zones are pretty clearly marked out by the varying type of vegetation. Near the sea, palms, bananas, oleanders, &c. flourish with subtropical luxuriance; from one to two thousand feet above this, gorse and broom, chestnut and apple trees predominate; then comes the region of laurels ; then the heaths with the Canarian pines; lastly, a barren waste of rock covered with lava and pumice.

Orotava itself may almost be said to have two different climates, that of La Villa and its neighbourhood being more bracing than that of Puerto. It is a very dull place. La Villa is even duller than Puerto, and at present there is no English hotel in the old town, but, as already exceptionally cold. Indeed, a lady who had lived in the island for twenty-three years told me she had never experienced such a winter.

SAN ANTONIO, PORT OROTAVA ; 346 feet above mean sea level.