[Rgdengine-developers] e of the unheard of

[Paith A. <ch...@bi...>]

Ta, was soon reached, beyond which all trace of a path disappears, the
rest of the ascent being over rough lava as far as the Chahorra Cone,
with here and there, in the shade, patches of unmelted snow. The peak
itself is very steep, and its ascent is rendered yet more arduous by the
pumice-stone which rolls away beneath the feet. "At thirty-five minutes
past six," says M. Dumont d'Urville, "we arrived at the summit of the
Chahorra, which is evidently a half-extinct crater. Its sides are thin
and sloping, it is from sixty to eighty feet deep, and the whole surface
is strewn with fragments of obsidian, pumice-stones, and lava.
Sulphureous vapour, forming a kind of crown of smoke, is emitted from
it, whilst the atmosphere at the bottom is perfectly cool. At the summit
of the peak the thermometer marked 11 degrees, but in my opinion it was
affected by the presence of the fumerolles, for when at the bottom of
the crater it fell rapidly from 19 degrees in the sun to 9 degrees 5' in
the shade." The descent was accomplished without accident by another
route, enabling our travellers to examine the Cueva de la Nieve, and to
visit the forest of Aqua Garcia, watered by a limpid stream, and in
which D'Urville made a rich collection of botanical specimens. In Major
Megliorini's rooms at Santa Cruz the commander was shown, together with
a number of weapons, shells, animals, fish, &c., a complete mummy of a
Guanche, said to be that of a woman. The corpse was sewn up in skins,
and seemed to be that of a woman five feet four high, with regular
features and large hands. The sepulchral caves of the Guanches also
contained earthenware, wooden vases, triangular seals of baked clay, and
a great number of small discs of the same material, strung together like
chaplets, which may have been used by this extinct race for the same
purposes as the "quipos" of the Peruvians. On the 21st June the
_Astrolabe_ once more set sail and touched at La Praya, and at the Cape
V