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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, B2