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Several facts, namely, that beetles in many parts of the world are frequently blown out to sea and perish; that the beetles in Madeira, as observed by Mr. Wollaston, lie much concealed until the wind lulls and the sun shines; that the proportion of wingless beetles is larger on the exposed Desertas than in Madeira itself; and especially the extraordinary fact, so strongly insisted on by Mr.
Had they been separated ever since the Miocene period, like Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Desertas, constituting the small Madeiran Archipelago, we might have expected to discover a difference in the species of land-shells, not only when Ireland was compared to England, but when different islands of the Hebrides were contrasted one with another, and each of them with England.
Several facts namely, that beetles in many parts of the world are frequently blown out to sea and perish; that the beetles in Madeira, as observed by Mr. Wollaston, lie much concealed until the wind lulls and the sun shines; that the proportion of wingless beetles is larger on the exposed Desertas than in Madeira itself; and especially the extraordinary fact, so strongly insisted on by Mr.
The length of a longitudinal degree along the parallel of thirty-four, in which it is reiterated they first made land, and between which and the parallel of thirty- two they had sailed from the Desertas, is calculated and found to be fifty-two miles, and the whole number of degrees which they had traversed across the ocean between those parallels, being twelve hundred leagues, or forty-eight hundred miles, is by simple division made ninety-two.
So I prayed to the Mother of Heaven and kept the lead busy, and always found deep water: and more by God's guidance than our management we missed the Desertas, where a tall bare rock sprang out of the fog so close on our larboard quarter that the men cried out it was a giant in black armour rising out of the waves.
They gave their mind to the work, do you see, and did it well. We made the Desertas off Rio without having had one day on which my wife and the children couldn't be on deck with comfort. They were tried somewhat by the heat, for it was hot in our little cabin with the sun striking down on the deck all day, but they didn't mind that much. I was most anxious about the sheep.
And, as they talked, Madeira, in all its summer glory, loomed up out of the ocean, for they had passed the "Desertas" and "Porto Santo" by night, and for a while they were lost in the contemplation of one of the most lovely and verdant scenes that the world can show.
His first entry into serious geography is in the fine maps of Dulcert, 1339, and the Pizigani, 1367, both of which plainly label Madeira, Porto Santo, and Las Desertas "The Fortunate Islands of St. Brandan." That there may be no possibility of misunderstanding, the Pizigani brothers present a full-length portrait of the holy navigator himself bending over these islands with hands of benediction.
At last, one morning, at an early hour, when Captain Willis said we were near the island of Madeira, the cry of "Land ahead!" was raised, and in a short time we were passing between that beautiful place and a group of rocks called the Desertas. They are about ten miles from the mainland, and extend for almost fifteen miles from north-west to south-east.
Its origin has been found in the orchilla still growing upon the Desertas; but this again appears unlikely enough. Michael, Azores. He led a life of holiness and good works, composed his history in 1590, left many 'sons of his soul, as he called his books, and died in his natal place, A.D. 1591. By Gomes Eannes de Azurara, written between A.D. 1452-53, and quoted by Prof.
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