Morning journal and courier., 1889-12-14
IN THE AZORES.

Topography of the Islands of Ter
 ceira, st. George and Pico-The
 Beautiful Women of Plco-A Night
 On the Summit Of Mount Pico.
 FAYAL, Aaores, Nov. 13.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 After voyage of four days from St. Mi chael in little Portuguese trading coaster, during which we had touched at the port of Angra, in the island of Terceira, and Vellas in the island of St. George, I finally de- parked at Horta, the capital city of the is- land of Fayal, and at once made prepara- tions to cross to the near island of Pico, whose famous mountain of the same name I was desirous of ascending.
 The Azorean island of Terceira is 80 named from it's having been the third in the order of discovery. It has about one hundred and eighty square miles and population of near Iy sixty thousand souls. There are few mountain heights or ocean headlands of im- pressive picturssqueness, none furnishing scenic views of grandeur, but within it's sev- enty miles of coast line are many noble pla- teaus often reaching elevations of three and four thousand feet above the sea. Terceira, however, enjoys few distinctive superiori- ties, from the Azorean standpoint. It has always been the most loyal to the Portuguese crown. No less than three Portuguese rulers have made this island their temporary resi- dence, and fine monuments in token of the fact have been erected. The capital and chief port Angra, possesses the aristocracy of the Azores. Titles are as common as donkeys in Angra. Then, too, it's streets are more modern; it's public buildings handsom- CT; It's whitewash and paints are winter, bluer, pinker or yellower than elsewhere in the Azores; and to crown all, the city is the only one in the islands which boasts an en- closure for the fiesta de touros, or bull fight.
 The island of St. George is complete contrast in many respects to Terceira. Its area is perhaps ninety square miles and it has population of fully nineteen thousand souls. Geographically considered it is the most interesting of the entire Azorean group, save perhaps Pico, which only surpasses it in the extraordinary height of its single tre- mendous mountain. Its coast line of some twenty or thirty miles faces on the south west of both Fayal and Pico, and is one of the most impressive sea walls ever behsld Any one who has caught half views through a shifting Quoddy fog of the northern sheer headlands of the grim island of Grand Ma nan, of our nerthsasternmost Maine coast, can form an excellent idea of this mighty mass of headlands which for half days sail confronts one from the Azoreau sea. They are miQhtier, vaster and incomparably more grim and weird than Manan's dark northern heights, for, with scarcely . break, :, here are almost precipitous heights rising not three and four hundred feet above the waves, but from eight to fifteen hundred feet. Vellas, the chief city, or rather, ham, let, lies like beggar in the sun beneath these heights, with volcanoes behind, not so long ago extinct but there remain evidences of their destructive belchings which once all but annihilated the near hamlet of Ursulina. vellas is anticipated, woebegone, slothful. It's cathedral and hospital are the only two structures at all noteworthy; the people of the island lazily engage in agriculture, fsh- ing and wrecking; and the peasants, who are most picturesque in dress, and manners, are as primitive in all methods of labor as were the Moors when in Spain and Portugal. from whom the inhabitants are said to have sprung, and to whom they still bear strong facial resemblance.
 Tho island of Pico, with an area of eighty square miles and from twenty five ts twenty eight thousand inhabitants, is in two partic- ulars the most interesting of the Azores. It's single tremendous peak, from which the | inland derives it's name, furnishes the high. est elevation to be seen by mariners in At lantie waters; and its women are the most beautiful to be found upon all the Atlantic shores. Ptco, the mountain, is nearly eight l thousand feet above the sea level. It can be deseried from a distance of seventy -fvs miles at sea. It's formation is volcanic, and 1 at the present time it Is simply slumberina volcano; for from the crater at it's summi
 there constantly pour streams of air of suci l intense heat that in the moonlight, or in cor 1 tain conditions of the atmosphere, at dawl
 or twilight, pale flame is easily discernei from the opposite shore of Fayal. Pico, th ialand, Is the southernmost of the middl Azorean group comprising draciosa, St | George, Terceira, Fayal and Pico. and i
 shaped like an Indian club. it's handle to th east, and it's blunt head, with it's sharp lay