an island of Africa, and one of the Canaries, being the most considerable for riches, trade, and extent. It lies to the south of the island of Salvages, to the west of the Grand Canary, to the north of the island of Gomera, and to the east of that of Palma. It is of a triangular form, being about 45 miles in length and 20 in breadth; and in the centre is the famous peak, called by the natives El Pico de Teide, which in clear weather may be seen at the distance of 120 miles, like a thin blue vapour very little darker than the sky.

The most frequented harbour is called Santa Cruz, which is on the south side of the island, and where ships with good anchors and cables may be safe in all weathers. At this port is the principal commercial town in the island, called also Santa Cruz, in the middle of which is a mole, built at a vast expense for the convenience of landing; between the mole and the town is a fort called St Philip's, and near it is a steep rocky den or valley, beginning at the sea shore, and running far inland, which would render the attack of an enemy very difficult; there are also other forts for its defence, all joined together by a thick stone wall, and mounted with cannon.

Santa Cruz is a large town, containing several churches and convents, an hospital, and the best constructed private buildings of any in the Canary islands. It contains about 7000 inhabitants; it is not fortified on the land side, and all the country near it is dry, stony, and barren.

About four leagues to the south of Santa Cruz, close to the sea, there is a cave, with a chapel called the chapel of our Lady of Candelaria, in which is an image of the Virgin Mary, that is held in as much reverence here as that of Diana was at Ephesus. This chapel is endowed with so many ornaments that it is the richest place in all the seven islands. At a certain season of the year almost all the inhabitants go thither on pilgrimage, and innumerable and incredible stories are related and universally believed concerning this image.

About four miles in land from Santa Cruz stands the city of St Chrysobal de la Laguna, which is the metropolis of the island, and contains two parish churches and five convents, but has no trade, being inhabited principally by the gentry of the island; the inhabitants are numerous, yet nobody is seen in the streets, which are solitary and desolate, so that grass grows in those that are most frequented. There are many other towns in the island which contain a great number of people, but none are more than three leagues from the sea.

All the fertile ground within a league of the sea is covered with vines; that of the next league is sown with corn, the third is adorned with woods, and above the woods are the clouds, for the island gradually ascends from the sea, rising on all sides till it terminates in the peak, which is the centre.

On the south-east of the island inland from Candelaria is a town called Guimar, where there are some families which know themselves to be the genuine unmixed offspring of the original natives; but they know nothing of the manners of their ancestors, nor have they preserved any remains of their language. They are fairer than the Spaniards of Andalusia.

Teneriff contains about 96,000 persons, supposed to be equal to the number of inhabitants of all the rest of the seven islands put together. The peasants in general are wretchedly clothed; when they do appear better, they are habited in the Spanish fashion. The men, in a gentler line, dress very gayly, and are seldom seen without long swords. It is remarked, that few of them walk with dignity and ease; which may be attributed to the long cloaks they usually wear. The women wear veils; those worn by the lower ranks are of black fluff, those of the higher of black silk; and such among the latter as have any claim to beauty are far from being over careful in concealing their faces by them. The young ladies wear their fine long black hair plaited, and fastened with a comb or a ribbon on the top of the head.

The common people, and in this they resemble the inhabitants of most of the islands in the Pacific Ocean lately discovered, have in them a strong tendency to thieving; they are besides lazy, and the most unfortunate beggars in the world. "I observed likewise (says Mr White) that the itch was so common among them, and had attained such a degree of virulence, that one would almost be led to believe it was epidemic there. Some of the women are so abandoned and shameless, that it would be doing an injustice to the prostitutes met with in the streets of London to say they are like them: The females of every degree are said to be of an amorous constitution, and addicted to intrigue; for which no houses could be better adapted than those in Teneriff.

"The manufactures carried on here are very few, and the product of them little more than sufficient for their own consumption. They consist of taffetas, gauze, coarse linens, blankets, a little silk, and curious garters. The principal dependence of the inhabitants is on their wine (their staple commodity), oil, corn, and every kind of stock for shipping. With these the island abounds; and, in their season, produces not only the tropical fruits, but the vegetable productions of the European gardens, in the greatest plenty. Teneriff enjoys an agreeable and healthful mediocrity of climate. Indeed none seems better adapted for the restoration of a valetudinarian; as, by going into the mountains, he may graduate the air, and choose that state of it which best suits his complaint. But although the inhabitants are thus healthy, and have so little occasion for medical aid, they loudly complain of the want of knowledge in the professional gentlemen of the island."

The height of the peak of Teneriff has been so variously estimated and calculated by different travellers and geographers, that we can only take the mean between the two extremes of their decisions. Dr Halley allows but two miles and a quarter from the level of the sea to the summit of the sugar-loaf, whilst the Spanish account of the Canary islands, translated by Mr Glas in 1763, makes it no less than five miles; and others have assigned a height different from both these. That it is an extinguished volcano is universally known; and we are persuaded that the following account of the crater, and of some experiments made on its brink by M. Mongez on the 24th of August 1785, will prove not unacceptable to our chemical readers.

"The crater of the peak of Teneriff (says he) is a true sulphur-pit, similar to those of Italy. It is about 50 fathoms long and 40 broad, rising abruptly from east to west. At the edges of the crater, particularly on the under side, are many spiracles, or natural chimneys, from which there exhale aqueous vapours and sulphureous acids, which are so hot as to make the thermometer rise from 9° to 34° of Reaumur. The inside of the crater is covered with yellow, red, or white, argillaceous earth, and blocks of lava partly decomposed. Under these blocks are found superb crystals of sulphur; there are eight-sided rhomboidal crystals, sometimes an inch in length, and, I suppose, they are the finest crystals of volcanic sulphur that have ever been found. The water that exhales from the spiracles is perfectly pure, and not in the least acid, as I was convinced by several experiments." "The elevation of the peak above the level of the sea is near 1900 toises; which induced me to make several chemical experiments in order to compare the phenomena with those that occur in our laboratories. I shall here confine myself merely to the results.

"The volatilization and cooling of liquors were here very considerable. Half a minute was sufficient for the dissipation of a pretty strong dose of ether. The action of acids on metals, earths, and alkalis, was slow; and the bubbles which escaped during the effervescence were much larger than ordinary. The production of vitriols was attended with very singular phenomena. That of iron assumed all at once a very beautiful violet colour, and that of copper was suddenly precipitated of a very bright blue colour. I examined the moisture of the air by means of the hygrometer, of pure alkali, and of vitriolic acid; and I thence concluded, as well as from the direction of the aqueous vapours, that the air was very dry; for at the end of three hours the vitriolic acid had suffered hardly any change either in colour or weight; the fixed alkali remained dry, except near the edges of the vessel that contained it, where it was a little moist; and Saussure's hygrometer pointed to 64°, as nearly as the impetuous wind which then blew would permit us to judge.

"Liquors appeared to us to have lost nothing of their fineness or strength at this height; a circumstance which contradicts all the tales that have hitherto been related on this head: volatile alkali, ether, spirit of wine, retained all their strength; the smoking spirit of Boyle was the only one that seemed to have lost any sensible portion of its energy. Its evaporation, however, was not the least quick; in 30 seconds, a quantity which I had poured into a cup was entirely volatilized; and nothing remained but the sulphur which tinged the rims and the bottom. When I poured the vitriolic acid on this liquor, there happened a violent detonation, and the vapours that arose had a very sensible degree of heat. I tried to form volatile alkali by decomposing sal ammoniac with the fixed alkali; but the production was slow and hardly sensible, while at the level of the sea this process, made with the same substances, in the same proportions, succeeded very readily and in abundance.

"As I was curious to investigate the nature of the vapours that exhale from the crater, and to know whether they contained inflammable air, fixed air, and marine acid, I made the following experiments: I exposed on the edge of one of the spiracles a nitrous solution of silver in a cup; it remained more than an hour in the midst of the vapours which were continually exhaling, but without any sensible alteration; which sufficiently shews that no vapours of marine acid exhale from the crater. I then poured into it some drops of marine acid, when a precipitation of luna cornea immediately ensued: but instead of being white, as that precipitate generally is, it was of a fine dark violet colour, which quickly became grey, and it assumed the form of small scaly crystals. These were very distinct when looked at with a glass, and they were even visible to the naked eye. I think myself justifiable in attributing this alteration of colour to the vapours of inflammable air, according to some experiments that I have made on the precipitation of luna cornea in such air. Lime-water, exposed for three hours on the margin of the crater, and in the neighbourhood of a spiracle, was not covered with any calcareous pellicle, nor even hardly with any filmy appearance; which proves, in my opinion, not only that no vapours of fixed air exhale from the crater, but that the atmospheric air, which rests upon it, contains very little of that air, and that the inflammable vapours and sulphurous acids alone are sensible and considerable. The electricity of the atmosphere was pretty considerable, for Saussure's electrometer, when held in the hand at the height of about five feet, indicated three degrees, while on the ground it pointed only to one and a half. The electricity was positive." W. Long. 16. 18. N. Lat. 28. 29.