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Article DESCRIPTION OF THE PEAK OF TENERIFFE. ← Page 4 of 5 →
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Description Of The Peak Of Teneriffe.
Of the party some concurred with their guides in proposing to abandon the project of going farther ; but Doctor Gillan , Doctor Scot , Mr . Barrow , and Mr . Hamilton of the Hindostan , had the firmness to persevere in the attempt of a second still as high as possible ; while the rest turned their eyes , readily , back to Orotava , except , indeed , a boy little more than twelve years old , who , not disheartened by the
sufferings of the preceding day and night , saw himself , with evident reluctance , separated from his more adventurous companions , to follow the retrogade steps of the person who had the care of him . Of the two guides , belonging to the party , one conducted the gentlemen going to Orotava , who , as they descended from the mountain , which proved to them so dreary and unhospitableexperienced a most rapid
, change of climate as they approached to the genial and comfortable atmosphere below ; such change being little less than if , in that short space of time , they -had suddenly been transported from the icy coast of Greenland into the warm latitudes of the Pacific Ocean ; so much quicker is the transition , with regard to its effect , in a vertical than in an horizontal direction .
Before these travellers got to the sea-port of Orotava , they passed through the city , or upper town of the same name , neatly built of stone , on an irregular surface . They took the dimensions of a remarkable dragon ' s blood-tree growing near it ; to which tree any of the same kind in Madeira , though there thought large , were , comparatively , but striplings : its trunk measured , at the height of ten feet
from the ground , thirty-six feet in girth ; at the hei g ht of fifteen feet , this trunk divided itself into about a dozen branches , sprouting rcgularlv , as from a centre , in an oblique direction upwards , like the subdivisions of an umbelliferous plant , all of equal dimensions , and producing , at their extremities only , thick and spongy leaves , resembling , but much smaller thanthose of the common aloe . Concerning this
, tree there was a tradition , current in the island , that it existed , of no inconsiderable dimensions , when the Spaniards made the conquest of Teneriffe , about three centuries ago ; and that it was then , what it still is , a land-mark to distinguish the boundaries of landed possessions
near it . The gentlemen who wished to pursue their journey upwards were accompanied by the second guide . This man was one of the very few remaining of the descendants of the Guanches , or original inhabitants and sole possessors of the island , when first invaded b 3 ' the Spaniards in the fifteenth century . He still retained some characteristics of that ancient race : he was a tall , strong-boned man , little
less than six feet high , and walked erect and firm , though near his grand climacteric , or upwards of sixty years of age : the lineaments of his face were strongly marked ; his eye-brows high and arched , his cheek-bones prominent , his nose somewhat flattened , and his lips of a thickness approaching to those of the Blacks of Africa . With this man the four gentlemen , above named , according to Mr . Barrow ' s relation , " soon gained the summit of the mountain from when . ee the great cone arose , which , being often covered with
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Description Of The Peak Of Teneriffe.
Of the party some concurred with their guides in proposing to abandon the project of going farther ; but Doctor Gillan , Doctor Scot , Mr . Barrow , and Mr . Hamilton of the Hindostan , had the firmness to persevere in the attempt of a second still as high as possible ; while the rest turned their eyes , readily , back to Orotava , except , indeed , a boy little more than twelve years old , who , not disheartened by the
sufferings of the preceding day and night , saw himself , with evident reluctance , separated from his more adventurous companions , to follow the retrogade steps of the person who had the care of him . Of the two guides , belonging to the party , one conducted the gentlemen going to Orotava , who , as they descended from the mountain , which proved to them so dreary and unhospitableexperienced a most rapid
, change of climate as they approached to the genial and comfortable atmosphere below ; such change being little less than if , in that short space of time , they -had suddenly been transported from the icy coast of Greenland into the warm latitudes of the Pacific Ocean ; so much quicker is the transition , with regard to its effect , in a vertical than in an horizontal direction .
Before these travellers got to the sea-port of Orotava , they passed through the city , or upper town of the same name , neatly built of stone , on an irregular surface . They took the dimensions of a remarkable dragon ' s blood-tree growing near it ; to which tree any of the same kind in Madeira , though there thought large , were , comparatively , but striplings : its trunk measured , at the height of ten feet
from the ground , thirty-six feet in girth ; at the hei g ht of fifteen feet , this trunk divided itself into about a dozen branches , sprouting rcgularlv , as from a centre , in an oblique direction upwards , like the subdivisions of an umbelliferous plant , all of equal dimensions , and producing , at their extremities only , thick and spongy leaves , resembling , but much smaller thanthose of the common aloe . Concerning this
, tree there was a tradition , current in the island , that it existed , of no inconsiderable dimensions , when the Spaniards made the conquest of Teneriffe , about three centuries ago ; and that it was then , what it still is , a land-mark to distinguish the boundaries of landed possessions
near it . The gentlemen who wished to pursue their journey upwards were accompanied by the second guide . This man was one of the very few remaining of the descendants of the Guanches , or original inhabitants and sole possessors of the island , when first invaded b 3 ' the Spaniards in the fifteenth century . He still retained some characteristics of that ancient race : he was a tall , strong-boned man , little
less than six feet high , and walked erect and firm , though near his grand climacteric , or upwards of sixty years of age : the lineaments of his face were strongly marked ; his eye-brows high and arched , his cheek-bones prominent , his nose somewhat flattened , and his lips of a thickness approaching to those of the Blacks of Africa . With this man the four gentlemen , above named , according to Mr . Barrow ' s relation , " soon gained the summit of the mountain from when . ee the great cone arose , which , being often covered with