7/34 A winding path leads to the bottom--a small fertile valley watered by a streamlet which leaves it by a deep gorge on the left, and forms a picturesque waterfall on its way to the sea. The scattered rustic huts and snow-white chapel of the Curral complete the picture of this peaceful and secluded spot, buried in the very heart of the mountains. The height of the Pico dos Bodes, determined in the usual way by the mountain barometer, was found by Lieutenant Dayman to be 3677 feet; his observations on the magnetic dip and intensity (for which see the Appendix) are interesting, as showing a great amount of local attraction at the summit.) (**Footnote. There is reason to suppose the Curral to have been the principal, although not the only centre of that submarine volcanic action, during the continuance of which Madeira first emerged from the sea, an event, which the evidence afforded by the limestone fossils of St.Vincente (on the north side of the island) associates with the tertiary epoch. See Paper by Dr.J.Macaulay in Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for October 1840.) Although it is now the middle of winter, today's excursion afforded many subjects of interest to a naturalist. |