United States or Libya ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Its contrast of vivid greens, of white quintas, of the two extinct volcanos overlooking Orotava, and of the picturesque townlets facing the misty blue sea, fringed with a ceaseless silvery surf by the brisa, or north-east trade, the lord of these latitudes, had not a symptom of the Madeiran monotony of verdure.
They proved on examination to be all known species, including several of the rarer forms, and not a few of those discovered by the Reverend Mr. Lowe. They were compared with Madeiran specimens by Mr. Vernon Wollaston. When the Rattlesnake touched at the Azores on the return voyage, a few landshells were collected at Fayal.
The peculiarity of these uplands, within certain limits, is that the young spring-verdure clothes them before it appears in the lower and warmer levels. Here they catch a sunshine untarnished by watery vapour. During our short trip and others subsequent many a little village showed us the Madeiran peasant pure and simple. Both sexes are distressingly plain; I saw only one pretty girl amongst them.
It was no longer the weedy, ruinous, village-looking place that it appeared to be when I first knew it in 1848. The population had been increased to 20,000 by an influx of Portuguese, Madeiran, and German immigrants, and for many years past the provincial government had spent their considerable surplus revenue in beautifying the city.
In those days the land bore giants and heroes, and Madeiran blood had not been polluted by extensive miscegenation with the negro. The estate has been wilfully wasted by certain of his descendants.
The landing in the levadia, or surf, is abominable and a life-boat waits accidents outside. It works with the heavy Madeiran oars, square near the grip and provided with a board into whose hole the pin fits.
The Madeiran sun does all the work of English fires and flues; but the glass must be whitewashed; otherwise, being badly made, with bubbles and flaws, it would burn holes in the plants. The best temperature for the hot-houses is about 90 deg.
Word Of The Day