over; this we descended by a Rope that our Servants held fast on the Top, while with the other End being fattened about our Middles we swung ourselves, till being over a Bank of Snow we slid down, lighting upon it; we were forced to swing thus in the Descent, because in the Midst of the Bottom of this Cave opposite to the Overture at the Top, is a round Pit of Water like a Well, the surface whereof is about a Yard lower, but as wide as the Mouth at Top, and about six Fathom deep; we supposed this Water was not a Spring, but dissolved Snow blown in, or Water trickling through, the Rocks; about the Sides of the Grott for some Height there is Ice and Isicles hanging down to the Snow.
But being quickly weary of this excessive cold Place, and drawn up again, we continued our Descent from the Mountains by the same Passage we went up the Day before, and so about five in the Evening arrived at Oratava, from whence we set forth; our Faces were so red and sore that to cool them we were forced to wash and bathe them in whites of Eggs: The whole Height of the Pico in Perpendicular is vulgarly esteemed to be two Miles and an half. No Trees, Herbs nor Shrubs did we find in all the Passage, but Pines, and among the whiter Sands a kind of Broom being a bushy Plant: It is the Opinion of some ingenious Persons who have lived twenty Years upon the Place, that the whole Island being a Soil mightily impregnated with Brimstone, did in former Times take Fire, and blow up all or near all at the same Time; and that many Mountains of huge Stones calcined and burnt, which appear all over this Island, especially in the South-Weft Part of it, were cast up and raised out of the Bowels, of the Earth at the Time of that general Conflagration; and that the greatest
