largest of the group, has a length of 30 geographical miles, an extreme breadth of 12 miles, and a coast line of about 72 miles, leaving out of view the indentations, which are not great. Its longer axis lies E. and W.; and it is traversed in the same direction by a mountain chain, having a mean altitude of 4000 feet, and forming the backbone of the island, up to which deep ravines penetrate from both coasts. Pico Ruivo, the highest summit, stands in the centre of the island, and has a height of 6100 feet. Several of the adjacent summits are very little lower than this. The greatest part of the interior is uninhabited; for the towns, villages, and scattered huts, either lie near the mouths of ravines, or upon the lower slopes that stretch from the mountains towards the coast. The ridges between the ravines terminate in lofty headlands; and nearly the whole coast is bound by precipices of dark basalt or crumbling tufa. On the S. side of the island there is left hardly any of the indigenous wood which once clothed the whole island, and gave it the name it bears; but on the N., some of the valleys are still filled with native trees of fine growth. The eastern extremity is terminated by a long, narrow, and comparatively low promontory of rock, named Point São Lourenço. Here there is a quantity of calcareous sand, with land shells of an extinct species, and calcareous infiltrations simulating the roots and branches of trees. After Funchal, the capital, the principal places of the island are—Santa Cruz, Machico, Cana de Lobos, Ribeira Brava, Ponta de Sol, Magdalena, and Calheta, on the S. coast; San Vicente, Ponta Delgada, San Jorge, Santa Anna, Fayal, and Porto da Cruz, on the N. coast. All these towns and villages are at the mouths of ravines, except Santa Anna, which is a parish scattered over ground elevated at least 1000 feet above the sea. The N. coast is bound by a loftier wall of rock, and has altogether a wilder aspect than the S. The roads, in a country with a surface so broken as Madeira, must necessarily be bad, and hence, in transporting articles of bulk or weight, the people make use as far as possible of the sea. A great improvement has taken place within the last two or three years in the roads of the interior; but incessant repairs are required to keep them passable—the heavy rains of winter being very destructive. Those near Funchal are well paved with small pieces of broken basalt.
It has been conjectured, but on insufficient evidence, that History, the Phoenicians discovered Madeira at a very early period. Pliny tells us of King Juba's geographical investigations, and mentions certain Purple, or Mauritanian Islands, the position of which, with reference to the Fortunate Islands, or the Canaries, might seem to indicate the Madeiras. There is a romantic story, which every historian of the island feels bound to mention, even while he discredits it, to the effect that two lovers, Robert Machim and Anna d'Arfet, fleeing from England to France in 1346, were driven out of their course by a violent storm, and cast on the coast of Madeira at the place subsequently named Machico, in memory of one of them. In 1419 two of the captains of Prince Henry of Portugal were driven by a storm to the island called by them Porto Santo, or Holy Port, in gratitude for their rescue from shipwreck. The next year an expedition was sent out to colonize the island, and Madeira being described, they made for it, and took possession on behalf of the Portuguese crown. Funchal was made a city in 1508, the seat of a bishop in 1514, and of an archbishop in 1539. When the archbishopric of Goa was created in 1547, the chief ecclesiastical dignity of the island was reduced to a bishopric. For the sixty years intervening between 1580 and 1640, Madeira, with Portugal itself, was under Spanish rule. In 1801 British troops arrived to garrison the island, as an attack on the part of France was expected, but they remained only a few months. In 1807 a large body of British troops, commanded by General Beresford, was again landed, and the island continued under the British flag until the peace of 1814. A few years since, Madeira ceased to be a Portuguese colony, being made a province and an integral part of the kingdom, entitled to send deputies to the Cortes assembling at Lisbon.
The inhabitants are of Portuguese descent, with some intermixture of Moorish and Negro blood. The men are of middle stature, well formed, with black hair and eyes. Those of the lower classes are strong, capable of long-continued labour, and industrious as long as they are under the pressure of want, which is but too generally the case. They are sociable and light-hearted, respectful in their behaviour towards their superiors, and polite towards each other. The women, in spite of their fine hair and eyes, are generally plain. The morals of all classes are not very strict, the priests frequently setting a bad example to the community. At the commencement of 1854 there were 991 foundlings in the different places provided for their reception in Madeira. The dress of the peasantry, without being picturesque, is peculiar. Both men and women wear on their heads the coroaça, a small cap made of blue cloth, in shape something like a funnel, with the pipe standing upwards. The men have trousers of linen, drawn tight, and terminating at the knees; a coarse shirt enveloping the upper part of their person, covered by a short linen jacket, or, in the town, by a jacket of blue cloth, completes their attire, with the exception of a pair of rough yellow boots. The women's outer garments consist of a gaudily printed calico gown, with a small cape of coarse scarlet or blue woollen cloth. The natives are fond of music, but they possess little skill in singing or playing, except as regards one instrument, the machete, a small kind of guitar, struck by the fingers. The mass of the people is entirely uneducated; and even the higher classes, though usually speaking English or French, seem to have little taste for reading or mental improvement. They are indolent, in spite of the fact that they are becoming poorer day by day. The principal business is carried on by British merchants, in whose hands the chief part of the wine trade has been vested. The British consul receives a salary of L300, and is allowed to engage in trade. The inhabitants of Madeira amounted in 1855 to 102,837 persons. The population has been gradually decreasing for some years, and this decrease may be in part attributed to the stream of emigration which has of late years set in to the British settlements in South America, and in part to the severe pressure which followed the failure of the grape crop. Notwithstanding that, in the ten years ending with 1855, nearly 35,000 persons left the island as emigrants, there is reason to believe that it is still much too densely populated, looking to the small proportion which the cultivable ground bears to the whole, and to the general want of capital.
The administration of affairs is in the hands of a civil governor appointed by the crown. At the present time (1856) the same person holds this office and that of military commandant. The defence of the island is intrusted to a battalion of infantry of the line, a detachment of artillery, and a militia of nominally 1200 men. The forts along the shore are neglected and falling to ruin. The law of Portugal is administered by two chief judges appointed by the crown, each of whom has a separate division of the island under his jurisdiction, within which he tries both civil and criminal cases, with the assistance of a jury. Minor cases are taken before magistrates elected by the people. For municipal purposes, the island is divided into nine districts, called concelhos, each of which has its municipal chamber (the members of which are chosen by the people), whose duty it is to keep the roads properly repaired, cleansed, lighted, &c. The chief police magistrate of each concelho, styled administrador, is appointed by government. A bishop, with a yearly income of L533, is at the head of the clergy, his cathedral being at Funchal. There are 49 parishes, each of which has its church and resident priest. Roman Catholicism is the established form of religion, but other religions are tolerated, except as regards the natives. The island sends four representatives (deputados) to the Cortes at Lisbon. They are elected by such of the male inhabitants as possess an annual income of 100 dollars. In 1854 the number of children of both sexes receiving instruction at elementary schools supported by private funds was 197; those of both sexes at the public primary schools supported by the municipalities and by government amounted to 2055, and those at private schools of this class numbered 337. At the Lyceum of Funchal, an establishment falling into the class of secondary schools, there are six professors, who are paid by government. In 1854 the pupils at the Lyceum were 121 in number. The total sum expended by the government on schools of all classes in 1854 was about L1230. This sum covered the salaries of four professors of medicine and surgery attached to the hospital at Funchal, and the cost of the priests' seminario. By law, all children of a certain age should be sent to school, but this regulation is not enforced, so that probably not more than an eighth part of them are actually receiving education.
The manufactures of Madeira are insignificant, their chief object being to satisfy some of the simple wants of the poorer classes. Baskets, straw hats, coarse linen and woollen articles, and shoes, are the principal objects. Artificial feathers, flowers, and sweetmeats are made for sale by the nuns. A good deal of needlework embroidery has been executed of late years by the women of Funchal for exportation, and a few fancy articles are made of the fibre of the Agave Americana. The bulk of the labouring population is employed in agricultural pursuits. Wine has hitherto been the chief article of export, but this branch of trade will soon cease. The rearing of the cochineal insect has been lately undertaken, in the hopes of its supplying the loss of the grape. Many of the coopers employed during the existence of the wine trade have emigrated; the rest earn a precarious subsistence. The casks they make possessed repute for excellence of construction. The chief artisans of Funchal at present are boot and shoe makers, cabinetmakers, carpenters, and stone-masons. The number of merchant ships anchoring at Funchal (which is the only foreign port) during 1855 was 242, of which 121 were British, and 91 Portuguese. The chief imports are—manufactured goods, iron ware, grain, salt, and timber. In 1855, of grain there was imported 196,765 bushels, principally from the neighbouring coast of Africa, and from the Azores. In the same year 27,800 bushels of salt entered. The official returns of the imports of manufactured goods cannot be relied on. The total receipts of the custom-house in 1855 amounted to rather more than L17,000. There is no bank on the island; the gold and silver coin in circulation is not Portuguese, but British, American, and Spanish. Accounts are made out in reis, imaginary coins, 4800 of which are equal by law to the pound sterling. Spanish and American dollars are current, at the value of 1000 reis, or 4s. 2d. British money. Funchal is a coaling station for the British mail steamers from England to Brazil and the African coast, which touch here once a month on their outward voyages, and again on their return. The Portuguese and French steamers to Brazil likewise touch here. Besides these vessels, two English sailing packets are continually plying between London and Madeira, and a Portuguese packet brig to and from Lisbon.
The system of agriculture in Madeira is of a very primitive description, the implements of every kind being extremely rude, and the ignorance of all principles complete. Probably not more than one-half of the island is cultivated. The want of water keeps large tracts in their original state, and a very large part of the remainder is of such a nature as to defy cultivation. An incalculable amount of labour has been expended upon the soil of Madeira: First in the erection of walls, that have been built with the view of preventing the soil being washed from the slopes into the sea by the heavy rains of winter. In this way a great part of the lower and cultivated region is supported, the inclosures being built up one above another in the form of terraces. Secondly, the lecadas, or water-courses, have cost vast toil. These works are either of masonry, or cut through the solid rock, and the water is thus brought by long winding channels from points high up in the mountains to the region of cultivation, where it is distributed by subordinate channels to the different inclosures, in regular order, according to the rights of their owners. In the absence of irrigation, the island for half the year would be a bare rock. Water in this climate has its value as well as the soil, and the one is made the subject of bargain, and sells just as much as the other. The springs, as might be supposed, are more numerous and copious on the north side of the great central chain of hills than on the south, whilst the demand for water is more urgent on the south than on the north. Attempts have consequently from time to time been made to convey the water by tunnels from one side to the other, but the skill of the engineers has frequently been inadequate to the difficulties, for the bottom of the completed tunnel has been more than once found to slope in the wrong direction. Could the whole of the south side be properly irrigated, the produce of the island would be wonderfully increased. A very large proportion of the land, perhaps as much as four-fifths, is strictly entailed. The removal of this restriction on the sale of land has been frequently agitated, but hitherto without avail. The relations of landlord and tenant are founded upon the old Roman, or what is now known as the metayer system. Money rents are unknown; but the gross produce of the land, after deducting the tithe, is equally divided between the owner and the occupier. It is the latter who is at the expense of all improvements, and these are his absolute property, which he can sell to another, without the consent of the landlord, whenever he pleases, and which, if not otherwise dealt with, will descend to his heirs. The landlord, however, has always the right of getting rid of this incumbrance on his estate by paying his tenant the value of the improvements; but as he is usually without capital, this is very seldom done. Hence, the occupier of the land acquires a nearly perfect fixity of tenure. According to the mode of valuation adopted in such cases, the tenant's share of the land may be estimated to be worth at least as much as the landlord's. The tenements are usually very small; and what we call fields are very rarely seen. The cattle are all stall-fed when they are not feeding on the mountains. Horses are never employed for draught, all the labour of that kind being effected by oxen, of which there is an abundant supply. These animals are small, but strong and hardy. Mules and asses are a good deal employed to convey burdens on their backs. Up to the year 1852, the vine, which was introduced soon after the discovery of the island, yielded the chief produce—that which has given Madeira a name all over the world. In that year disease first manifested itself; it stopped the production of wine, and is gradually destroying the plant. The pressure was at first great upon all classes; but liberal subscriptions from abroad in some degree mitigated the distress. Nevertheless, many persons died from sheer want during the first eighteen months, and a large number were induced to leave the island for the British West Indies or South America. The lower classes have now got past the worst; indeed, they are better off now than they were for several years previous to the appearance of the grape disease. The income of the landlords, however, has not increased with the increasing prosperity of the tenants, and many of them have suffered a loss of at least one-half their revenue. The trade of a wine merchant will soon be extinct; for though large stocks had accumulated, owing to the gradually diminishing demand, the continued drain, in the absence of fresh supplies, will exhaust them in a year or two. Taking the average of the ten years ending with 1855, the annual export was about 5000 pipes, each pipe containing 92 imperial gallons. The cultivators of the soil have covered large tracts with sugar-cane, which here succeeds pretty well, though it does not attain the luxuriance of that in the West Indies. The juice is not converted into sugar, but is distilled into a kind of rum, the whole of which is drunk by the lower classes on the island. The cultivation of grain has considerably increased of late years, and the island now produces a much greater proportion of what is required for consumption than formerly. In 1854 the harvest is supposed to have yielded 113,250 bushels of grain, whilst the importations amounted to 216,290 bushels. Several of the merchants are turning their attention to cochineal, which has succeeded well in the Canaries and in Algeria. The vegetables principally cultivated are—potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, beans, French beans, onions, cabbages, and the *Arum Colocasia*; the grain chiefly consists of maize, wheat, and barley. A little arrow-root is made. The coffee tree succeeds well in low damp situations, and the produce commands a higher price on the island than Brazilian coffee. The commonest fruits are—the orange, peach, guava, fig, custard-apple, granadilla, and banana. Apples, pears, cherries, walnuts, and mulberries, succeed better on the hills than near the shore. Various tropical plants have been introduced of late years, such as the mango and pine-apple. There are large chestnut woods at a height of between 2000 and 5000 feet, producing great quantities of fruit, which forms an appreciable item in the sustenance of the people.
Funchal, styled a city, is the chief town of Madeira, and the capital of the archipelago. It is distant about 1164 miles from the Lizard Point in England, and 380 from the coast of Africa. It has a population, including the neighbouring rural parishes, of nearly 29,000 persons, equal to almost one-third of the total population of the island, but probably not many more than half that number live in the town itself. It stands on the shore of a shallow bay on the S. coast, backed by an amphitheatre of mountains. In this position it is seen to great advantage. Numerous counting-houses, with their gardens, on the neighbouring slopes, give an air of great cheerfulness to a rugged landscape. The height of the mountains immediately behind may be estimated at 4000 feet. The bay is commanded by the cannon of a small fort placed on an insulated rock near the shore, and those of a fort upon an elevation behind the town. There are no facilities for landing either passengers or goods. The anchorage is tolerably good, and vessels in the bay are safe from all winds, except that from the S. When this blows strong, they are obliged to slip their cable and take to the open sea. The chief edifices are,—the churches, none of which deserve much notice, the governor's chapel, and the custom-house, a spacious substantial building. The streets are narrow and irregular, but very clean; at night they are lighted with oil lamps. The city contains three public walks planted with trees, some fountains of excellent water, a large poor-house, flat-roofed, a large hospital, and a jail. The dowager Empress of Brazil is now building an hospital for the reception of 24 consumptive patients of Portuguese or Brazilian birth. Internments have ceased to be made in the churches, and now take place in appropriate cemeteries near the town. The houses are usually furnished with an iron balcony at the windows; and the larger houses have a tall turret. The entrances of some of the great houses are striking, from the spacious paved court, or hall, into which the principal staircases descend. The ground storey is usually set apart for shops, stores, &c., and the windows are defended with stout iron bars, giving a prison-like air to the streets. The shop windows, as in Lisbon, present none of the tempting display of those in an English town. Three small streams traverse the town on their way to the sea, and the deep channels along which they run are crossed by bridges. In summer the streams are nearly dried up. Occasionally during winter the waters are swollen by violent rain on the mountains, and a vast quantity of rubbish is brought down, which chokes up the channel, and compels the water to overflow its banks. In this way much damage has been done in a few hours to the houses in the neighbourhood. A very disastrous inundation occurred during the night, in October 1803, after a hot and dry summer. Great damage was done to property, several houses and a church were swept away, and between 300 and 400 persons lost their lives. In October 1842 another flood occasioned immense damage, but no lives were lost. In December 1855 one of the rivers was blocked up by stones brought down from the hills, and the stream rushed into the adjacent houses on each side. A former governor laid the foundation of a museum of natural history, geology, &c.; and the Camara of Funchal has a small collection of books accessible to the public. The Portuguese Club has a large house, containing ball-rooms and a billiard-table, but no library. The room of the Commercial Association is supplied with newspapers. The affairs of the city are managed by the Camara Municipal, a body of persons somewhat like one of our municipal corporations, the chairman of which is named a president. Their income arises from a share of the duty on grain imported, an impost on salt, fresh meat sold in open market, fish taken, and wine, and on licenses for the opening of shops. They expended in 1854–5 about £3900, principally in lighting and repairing the streets. The leper's hospital, with its 30 inmates, costs them £290; their schools about £400. The markets are well supplied with vegetables, but they are not of the first quality. Flesh meat is cheap, and tolerably good, with the exception of the mutton. Fish is abundant and cheap, when fishing is possible, and forms an important item in the sustenance of the islanders. No wheel-carriages are in use; all cartage being effected either on the backs of mules. Madeiras, and asses, or by means of a rude sledge drawn by bullocks. A low, covered car, mounted upon a sledge, and drawn by oxen, is generally used in place of the omnibuses and cabs of our cities. The only other means of locomotion are by horses, palanquins, and hammocks. The hammock is a kind of chair suspended from a pole, each extremity of which is borne on a man's shoulder. The second resembles a ship's hammock, and is likewise suspended from a pole. This affords an easy mode of progression on a long journey. The common people are accustomed to carry heavy burdens on the head and shoulders, and resolutely refuse to make use of such innovations as wheel-barrows and trucks.
The only bookseller's shop in Madeira is kept by an Englishman for the benefit of his countrymen. Some of the Portuguese shopkeepers have a few books on their shelves, but they are chiefly almanacs, or works of Roman Catholic devotion. Four newspapers are published weekly in Funchal, the circulation of which is very small.
Attracted thither by the wine trade, many British merchants have taken up their residence at Funchal. The British resident population of Madeira amounted in 1856 to 75 families and 290 persons. They have built a church and constructed a cemetery. It has its shopkeepers, physicians, and a chaplain, who receives L400 a-year, partly from the residents, and partly from the British government. There are two places of worship where the forms of the English Established Church are used, and the Scotch Presbyterians have likewise a place of religious meeting. Visitors to the number of about 300 annually betake themselves to Funchal during the winter and spring, the major part of whom are persons afflicted with pulmonary disease. The town is entirely protected from the north wind; and though the climate is rather damp, the temperature is remarkably equable. The air is free from dust and smoke; and the trying winds of spring, so prevalent on the continent of Europe, are not felt here. The hotels and boarding-houses are numerous and well conducted, being chiefly in the hands of English persons. Invalids may obtain in most of these very comfortable accommodation. Furnished houses, with gardens, in the immediate neighbourhood of the town, can also be obtained. Good drugs are dispensed by the apothecaries; and most of the articles a temporary sojourner is likely to require may be purchased at the shops. At the English Club there is a billiard-table and a library of 2300 volumes. Such is the number of British assembled every winter in a small space, that a stranger will probably feel his separation from home less here than anywhere else out of England.
Situate in the temperate zone, about ten degrees N. of the tropics, and surrounded by the ocean, Madeira enjoys a climate of singular mildness; for not only is the winter warm, but the summer is cool. The mean annual temperature of Funchal is about $66^\circ$ F. In winter the thermometer has never been known to fall lower than $46^\circ$, and indeed it very seldom touches $48^\circ$; whilst the temperature in the summer rarely rises higher than $80^\circ$ near the shore. The mean temperature of the seasons is nearly the following.—spring, $65^\circ$; summer, $70^\circ$; autumn, $67^\circ$; winter, $61^\circ$. The mean daily range is about $10^\circ$. The number of days in the year on which rain has been observed to fall varies from 66 (1850) to 113 (1852); but 88 may be considered the mean. The annual quantity of rain likewise varies considerably; in 1825 as little as 20-43 inches fell, in 1826 as much as 43-35 inches; but 30 inches may be considered the average fall, and of this quantity nearly $\frac{3}{4}$th fall in winter, $\frac{1}{4}$th in autumn, and $\frac{1}{4}$th in spring. A heavy and prolonged descent of rain usually occurs in September or October, after which the weather clears up until January. Rain continues to fall, at more or less distant intervals, until June, after which come months of settled weather, almost unbroken by a shower. The rain is often very irregularly distributed through the colder months. At the commencement of the rainy weather, and sometimes in the course of the winter, the rain falls with almost tropical violence. Observations with the wet and dry bulb thermometer four times daily through the first four months of 1852 and 1853, gave, as a mean result, 73 per cent. of the vapour required for the saturation of the atmosphere. Observations taken eight times daily in the seven months from November 1854 to May 1855, yielded results that showed the air held 71-6 per cent. of the vapour necessary for saturation. It must be remembered that Madeira is a small island in a warm latitude, and that the air must consequently contain a considerable quantity of aqueous vapour from the proximity of the sea. The prevalent winds are those that blow from the N., or from a point or two E. or W. of N. The W. wind, coming across a great expanse of ocean, brings rain; that from the E., coming from Africa, is a dry wind. The leste of the inhabitants is a hot and dry E.S.E. wind, which visits Madeira for a few days each year, usually in the summer. It has been compared to the sirocco of southern Europe, but it has few of the disagreeable effects of that wind; and some persons even feel an unusual exhilaration of spirits during its continuance. The mountain-tops are then hotter than the lower regions, but even there the thermometer sometimes indicates $92^\circ$; and, at a much lower temperature than this, furniture, books, &c., show the extreme dryness of the air by bending or cracking. As the thermometer never approaches the freezing point by several degrees, frost and snow are wholly unknown in Funchal; but snow falls on the mountains at least once during the winter, not lower, however, than 2500 feet above the level of the sea; and hail sometimes makes its appearance in the storms of wind which occasionally burst over Funchal. A series of daily barometrical observations, made at ten a.m. for six years, at a locality 89 feet above the sea, gave $30^\circ$ as the mean annual reading. Sir James Clark, speaking of the climate of Madeira with reference to its effects on pulmonary disease, makes the following remarks:—"When we take into consideration the mildness of the winter and the coolness of the summer, together with the remarkable equality of the temperature during the day and night, as well as throughout the year, we may safely conclude that the climate of Madeira is the finest in the northern hemisphere. That great and lasting benefit is to be derived (by an invalid) from a temporary residence in the climate of Madeira many living examples sufficiently prove."
The Desertas are three long, narrow rocks (one of them attaining the height of 2000 feet), lying at the distance of about 11 miles S.E. from the nearest part of Madeira. They present nearly vertical precipices to the sea on both sides, and are not easily accessible; yet persons visit them for the purpose of sowing a little grain and gathering the scanty crop. Rabbits and gulls are abundant, and there are seals at one of these islets.
Porto Santo, where a lieutenant-governor resides, lies about 25 geographical miles N.E. of Madeira, surrounded by several uninhabited islands and rocks. Its length is about $6\frac{1}{2}$ geographical miles, and its greatest breadth 3 geographical miles. Its population, according to the return of 1854, amounted to 1708 persons. The only town bears the name of the island, which is unproductive, the supply of water being scanty, and hare of every kind of wood. Before the grape disease made its appearance, 1500 pipes of wine of an inferior quality were annually made here, which was distilled into brandy, for the purpose of mixing.
Further information respecting the island will be found in a little work entitled Madeira, its Climate and Scenery; a Handbook for Invalids and other Visitors, 2d ed., Edin. 1857. with the wines of Madeira. Around the town there is a large tract of comparatively level ground, great part of which is covered by calcareous sand (perhaps an ancient sand-dune) containing fossil land-shells. At the extremities of the island are hills, of which Pico de Facho, the highest, attains the altitude of 1660 feet. Small sailing boats are continually passing between Porto Santo and Madeira to convey to the former the various requirements of the inhabitants, including firewood, and the greater part of their food. Hardly any grain, besides barley, is cultivated.
Madeira has no indigenous land mammals. The wild goats and swine, spoken of by some of the early voyagers, must have escaped from confinement. The rabbit, which abounds in certain parts of the island, and at the Desertas, the black rat, brown rat, and mouse, have all been introduced. Seals, however, were encountered by the first comers, and this amphibious animal still haunts the Desertas. The porpoise is occasionally seen swimming near the shore.
As to birds, it appears that only one is peculiar, and that is a wren. Amongst the thirty species which breed on these islands are,—the kestrel, buzzard, and barn-owl; the blackbird, redbreast, blackcap, wagtail, goldfinch, two swifts, three pigeons, the quail, red-legged partridge, woodcock, two petrels, and three puffins. The green canary, the ancestor of our domesticated bird, is abundant here, as well as in the Canary Islands. About seventy other species have been occasionally seen at Madeira, straggling thither chiefly from the African coast, and many of them coming with the leste. The commonest of these are the sparrow-hawk, two herons, the common curlew, snipe, coot, water-hen, widgeon, kittiwake, and hoopoe. Sometimes the Egyptian vulture, the solan goose, the common starling, thrush, wren, skylark, sparrow, martin, turtle-dove, bittern, corn-crake, cuckoo, and crow, find their way thither, as well as the African bee-eater and the European goat-sucker.
The reptiles are very few, and none are poisonous. A small lizard (Lacerta Dugesi) is abundant, and makes its appearance in thousands on a sunny wall. It was very destructive to the grape crop. A frog has been introduced, and is gradually making its way over the island. A turtle (Caretta caretta, J. E. Gray) is frequently captured, and cooked for the table; but the soup is much inferior to that made from the green turtle of the West Indies.
The fishes are said to belong to nearly 190 species, many of which are peculiar, and beautiful or curious. Several of them are used for food, and amongst these are the tunny, which is sometimes taken of the weight of 300 lbs., Jew-fish, mackerel, John Dory, grey mullet, red mullet, and brazier. Amongst the more curious may be mentioned several species of shark, the torpedo, the stag-horned horse-fish, the striped remora, flying-fish, sword-fish, and trumpet-fish.
Nearly 1200 species of insects have been found at the Madeiras, and of these the beetles claim 555 species, the Hymenoptera about 217 species, and the Diptera about 160 species. The beetles have been described in Mr Wollaston's elaborate volume, Insecta Maderensis; but none of the other orders have yet received a close examination. Gay colours are rare in the Madeira Coleoptera, the tints being usually obscure. The type of this section of the fauna is, in the main, Mediterranean; and it is said to have a greater affinity to the fauna of Sicily than to that of any other country which has been hitherto investigated. One or two of the spiders are reputed to be poisonous.
About 119 species of shells, covering land molluscs, exist at the Madeiras, of which 111 are peculiar, and of the whole number, 76 belong to the genus Helix. In addition to the above, 13 species of dead land shells have been found in calcareous sand-beds, which do not correspond to living species.
A list, acknowledged to be incomplete, of 156 species of marine testaceous molluscs, found at Madeira, has been printed; 70 per cent. of the species being common to the Mediterranean and the Lusitanian coast, and 45 per cent. common to the coast of Britain. The corals are very few, but there are many kinds of sponge; none, however, of any value commercially.
A considerable number of the plants found in the lowest Botany regions have certainly been introduced since the colonization of the island by the Portuguese. Besides these, a large portion of the flora is of a Mediterranean character. Of the rest, the great majority is common to Madeira and the Canary Islands; but there still remain between 80 and 90 plants which are peculiar. The flowering plants, found truly wild, belong to about 364 genera and 650 species; the monocotyledons numbering 72 genera and 122 species; the dicotyledons 292 genera and 528 species. The proportion of monocotyledons to dicotyledons is therefore 10 to 43. The three largest orders are—Composite, Leguminose, and Graminaceae. Madeira contains 41 species of ferns, 3 of which are peculiar to it, and 6 others belong to the peculiar flora of the islands of the North Atlantic. A connection with the flora of Madeira and that of the West Indies and tropical America has been inferred by the presence in the former of 6 ferns, found nowhere on the continent of Europe or in North Africa, but existing on the islands of the E. coast of the American continent, or on the Isthmus of Panama. A further relationship to that continent is to be traced by the presence in Madeira of the beautiful shrub Cletthra arborea, Ait., belonging to a genus which is otherwise wholly American. In the lower regions the dragon-tree (Dracaena Draco, L.), and a cactus (Opuntia Tunia, Mill.), are forms more striking to the eye than any other amongst the indigenous vegetation. Of the former, very few wild specimens remain; but the Cactus exists in such abundance in the lower regions, as to give a character to the landscape. Amongst the trees, four of the laurel order are most conspicuous. The other trees most worthy of note are,—a Pittosporum, a Heberdenia, a Juniperus, a Sideroxylon, a Rhamnus, and an Olea (Picconia),—all now more or less scarce. The juniper attains a height of 40 or 50 feet, and yields a scented wood, which is prized by the cabinetmaker. Two heaths of arborescent growth, and a whortleberry, cover large tracts on the mountains. The flora of Madeira has been greatly defaced by the reckless hand of man. Several of the trees and shrubs grow only in situations that are nearly inaccessible; and some of the plants are of the greatest rarity. Few specimens of the noble forests that once clothed the island remain, and these are daily decreasing. The coast is too steep, and the sea too boisterous, for a luxuriant marine vegetation. Between high and low water mark there is a narrow fringe of Ulva, with a few small plants belonging to the orders Fucaceae and Ceramiaceae.
Nearly the whole of Madeira is of volcanic origin. The geology foundation of the island may have been either laid under the sea, or pushed through the floor of a continent; and two distinct causes, operating in some degree contemporaneously, have contributed to its present elevation. First, a long and complicated series of eruptions gradually piled up a mass of basalt, tuff, cinders, ashes, &c., to the height of between 4000 and 5000 feet; secondly, this mass, or so much of it as was then in existence, was upheaved to the extent of from 1000 to 2000 feet. Evidence that at least part of Madeira is of submarine origin is afforded by fragments of limestone imbedded in basalt and tuff, in a valley near the northern coast. Although the structure of the limestone has been much changed by heat, the genera of its marine shells can still be identified. But it seems to be only the nucleus of the island that yields any trace of a submarine origin; the upper two-thirds at the centre, and all the exterior beds downward to the coast, are apparently of supra-marine formation. That there were pauses of considerable duration in the accumulation of the materials of the island, is shown by several facts. The lignite and leaf bed of San Jorge, lying under 1200 feet of lavas, prove that time was allowed for the growth of a vegetation of a high order. It is clear, moreover, that great alterations and dislocations had taken place in the rocks of various localities before other lavas and tufts were in existence.
There do not appear to be any data for determining when volcanic action first commenced in this locality; but the limestone fossils, though scanty, afford evidence that the upheaval of that portion of the island at least took place during, or subsequent to, the miocene tertiary epoch. Nor is anything clear as to the period of the cessation of volcanic action. At the present day the subterranean fires seem perfectly extinct. There are no live craters, nor smoking crevices, as at the Canaries and Cape Verdes; or hot springs, as at the Azores. On the slopes which descend from the central ridge to the sea, especially in the neighbourhood of Funchal, there are many hills with conical shapes of more or less regularity, which seem to have been formed at a comparatively modern epoch. Volcanic cinders and slag are lying upon several of them, which look as if they had been thrown out of a furnace yesterday. Yet, round the base of others there may be traced streams of lava flowing from a higher source, and showing that, subsequent to the construction of these lateral cones, modern as they look, molten matter issued from higher vents, which assumed, on cooling, the character of ordinary compact basalt.
If we examine the general configuration of Madeira, we shall see a mountain chain, about 30 miles in length, running E. and W., and throwing off lateral ridges, that give it an extreme breadth of about 12 miles. Peaks rise about the middle to a height of more than 6000 feet; and deep ravines, lying between the lateral ridges, strike for the most part N. and S. from the central ridge to the sea. In the sections afforded by the ravines, the nucleus of the island is seen to consist of a confused mass of more or less stratified rock, upon which rest beds of tuff, scoriae, and lava, in the shape of basalt, trap, and trachyte; the whole traversed by dykes. These beds are thinnest near the central axis; as they approach the coast they become thicker and less intersected by dykes. They do not often exceed 1500 feet in thickness, but a section in the Curral shows that they have there a thickness of 3000 feet. Near the axis their angles vary from $3^\circ$ to $7^\circ$; but 2 or 3 miles away they are inclined at angles of $10^\circ$, $13^\circ$, and even $20^\circ$. Sir Charles Lyell is of opinion that these lavas issued, for the most part, from vents situate in the central district; that the form originally possessed by the whole island was that of a flattened dome, with sides varying in their slope from $3^\circ$ to $7^\circ$ or $8^\circ$; and that the present steeper inclination of the lava was acquired at a subsequent period, when shaken by convulsions which attended eruptions from lateral vents, whether clefts or craters, at a much lower elevation. At the centre of the island there are several summits of nearly the same altitude, and these are in some places connected by narrow walls and ridges, which are frequently quite impassable, whilst at others they are separated by ravines of enormous depth. On all sides are seen vertical dykes, projecting like turrets above the weathered surface of the softer beds. Sir C. Lyell found the materials of many of these peaks arranged with a quanuaversal dip, and he therefore considers them to be the ruins or skeletons of cones of eruption.
In the various parts of the island may be seen elevated tracts of comparatively level ground. These are supposed to have been formed by the meeting of numerous streams of lava flowing from cones and points of eruption in close proximity; various ejectments assisting at the same time to fill up inequalities. Deep down in the lateral ravines, covered by beds of basalt, there exist cones of eruption which have been overwhelmed by streams of melted matter issuing from the central region, and afterwards exposed to view by the same causes that excavated the ravines. These ravines may be regarded as having been formed at first by subterranean movements, both gradual and violent, which dislocated the rocks, and cut channels along which streams flowed to the sea. In course of time the waters, periodically swollen by melted snows and the copious rains of winter, would cut deeper and deeper into the heart of the mountains, and would undermine the lateral cliffs, until the valleys became as wide as we now find them. Even the Curral, which, from its position in the centre of the island, its rounded shape, and other circumstances, has been usually deemed the ruins of a crater, is thought to be nothing more than a valley scooped out in the way described. The rarity of crateriform cavities in Madeira is very remarkable. There exists, however, to the E. of Funchal, on a tract 2500 feet high, the Lagoa, a nearly perfect crater, 500 feet in diameter, and with a depth of 150 feet; and there is another equally perfect in the district known as Fanal, in the N.W. of Madeira, nearly 5000 feet above the sea. The basalt, of which much of the upper part of the island is composed, is of a dark colour and a tough texture. It is sometimes full of vesicular cavities, formed by the expansion of imprisoned gases. Olivine and augite are frequently disseminated in it. A rudely-columnar structure is very often seen in the basalt, but there is nothing so perfect as Staffa or the Giant's Causeway. The trachytic rocks are small in quantity compared with those of the basaltic class. The tufa is soft and friable, and generally of a yellow colour; where a hot stream of lava has been poured over the tufa, it has assumed a red colour. Black ashes and fragments of pumice are sometimes found in the tufaceous strata.
The mineral contents of the rocks of Madeira are unimportant. There are no metallic mines; a small quantity of native lead has, however, been found. The lignite is too impure to be of any value as fuel. No sulphur has been found; but a little iron pyrites and specular iron are occasionally met with. The mineral spring of St Antonio, near Funchal, is impregnated with carbonate of iron, and small quantities of the muriates of soda and magnesia, but no sulphates have been detected in it. The basalt yields an excellent building-stone, various qualities of which are quarried near Cama dos Lobos, 5 or 6 miles W. of Funchal. A small quantity of sienitic greenstone has been discovered, in situ, near Porto da Cruz, evidently pushed up from below.
At Porto Santo the trachytic rocks bear a much greater proportion to the basaltic than in Madeira. An adjacent islet is formed of tuffs and calcareous rock, indicating a submarine origin, upon which supra-marine lavas have been poured. The older series contains corals and shells (also of the miocene tertiary epoch), with water-worn pebbles, cemented together by carbonate of lime; the whole appearing to have been formed upon an ancient beach. The calcareous rock is taken in large quantities to Funchal, to be burnt into lime for building purposes.
Some philosophers have thought that many of the facts regarding the fauna and flora of the Atlantic islands may be explained by supposing that there existed, at a geologically modern period, a large tract of land which connected these islands with the continents of Europe and Africa. (J.Y.)
river of South America, Brazil, formed by the junction of the Beni and Mamore, in S. Lat. 10.23., W. Long. 65°, and falling into the Amazon after a N.E. course of about 700 miles.