Morning journal and courier., 1889-12-14

across in less than half an hour. In it's half
 dozen little cities and perhaps two score
 hamlets you will see more beautiful women
 than you will encounter in years ordinary
 observation in Europe. Even the old mar
 ried women and grandams possess that lus-
 trous beauty which remains with fadeless
 eyes. But the meninas and the senhoritas,
 the girls and misses, are physically winsome
 past all telling. This Pico maid has the del-
 icately arched foot of the Spanish woman,
 and her short skirts disclose limbs as grace.
 ful and shapely. If her splendid figure has
 one fault it lies in her lack of height, but in
 nearly every instance the compensation is
 found in perfect proportion. Her complex
 ion is waxen and creamy, with no carnation
 in her cheeks. Her mouth is large, mobile
 and tremulous. Her teeth are faultless, and
 the enthusiast would insist that her lips were
 maddening. Her hair, not black as with
 most southern types, is of that misty brown
 color which one may sometimes see on the
 sides of mountains opposite the sun. But
 yet flashing eyes. Her facial beauty is not
 greatest in repose. Then, if unconscious of
 observation, as with the women of all tropic
 countries where intelligence is lacking, her
 face has trace of the splendid animal in it;
 and 8 noticeable touch of helplessness and
 pathos. But bring her features into active
 play with man at the other end of the eff
 fort, with her large, dark, drearaful, glowing
 eyes, firing and melting behind long, dark,
 half hiding lashes, with the endless supple
 and willowy movement of every portion of
 her splendid body-for her every mental and
 physical faculty plays in responsive harmo.
 ny with her tongue or her eyes-and you
 have come close to something which makes
 you long for an artists power. They say
 here that the women among American and
 English tourists call these winsome Pico
 maidens ''perfectly horrid creatures"
 Doubtless. The Pico girls forgive this, for
 it somehow increases the surreptitious admi-
 ration of the defamers' husbands.
 From the distance of St. George or Tercei-
 ra the mountain, Pico, has the appearance of
 slender black cone rising from the sea, its
 farthest heights truncated here and there
 by shining bands of white. From
 the heights behind Horta, in Fayal, if an oc-
 casional cloud should intervene, it's appear
 ance Of incalcuIable height and sizs is won
 drously fascinating. Down at the waters
 immeasurable altitude is looming above you.
 The longer you look the more portentious
 this seeming grows, for the mountain is sel-
 dom clear-cut against the sky, until one is
 actually possessed of sense of apprehen
 siveness lest that more than mile of un-
 seen reach of hardened lava is about to tum-
 ble across the channel and beat the island of
 Fayal, powdered mass, into the sea. View
 ing it from a boat while skirting the incom-
 parably picturesque shores st it's base, one
 can think of no better way to describe it, es-
 pecially when remembering that every atom
 of shore and mountain was belched forth
 from the earth in volcanic fires, than in the
 old simile of vast cinder heap where the
 hunger slag has continually rolled te the out
 or edges into the sea, endlessly forming a
 broadening base as the finer sifttngs contin-
 o1l fo S1a1 hair h of& &hnr
 above Nothing could be more interesting
 than study of the seaward exposures of
 Pico's base from an open boat The north-
 western headlands are extraordinary and i'm
 pressive. For from two to three hundred
 feet above the shore immense layers or strata of dark lava show edges as clean and plain
 as new laid wall. They are each evidence
 of separate overflow of lava from the vol-
 cano above. These come squarely in places
 to the waters edge like huge breakwaters of masonry. Again they are crumbled and
 broken or blended as if by torrents of lava, and beyond such phenomena as these, there are always ragged lava crags jutting from the sea showing where the molten masses have seethed and cooled. Again, for long reaches, these precipitous strata, where the coast has received the full force of the At- | lantic's poundings, have been worn into l arches and have carved out pillars and fash toned buttresses, untsd for hundreds of feet l in height, as though some earthquake rent had divided them and cast ono portion be- meath the waves, were the most curious and fanciful representations of ruins of vast once hidden temples. Nor is this more ou- rious than the view from your boat of the sides of Pico almost to the clouds from this grandly picturesque base. It seems to the eye as though the entire surface of the mountain was covered with net work and tracery, in it's own lighter lava colors; as if 1E !
 been finely wrought in delicate threads of Guipure lace. This strange threading is where the once famous Pico vineyards were There is not single atom of substance de-
 serving the name of vegetable soil from base
 to peak of Pico; but years ago, in these myr- fad of little walled compartments rising above each other like the seats at a theater. the vines grew lush and green from the black
 stones and scoriae, until no vineyards in Tuscany produced finer grapes or furnished
 prettier scenes, and twenty-five thousand
 casks of wine were annually sent to Fayal for exportation. But the blight came, the vines were totally destroyed, and though now their culture is again slightly reviving, for quarter Of @ century the dry little lava pockets have added to the dark, dreary bar- renness of the mountain sides.
 The little town of Madelena at the island landing is a quaint old nest of sloth and somnolence. But these island folk are hand some, beaming with good nature, and the fact that the stranger comes to Pico makes every soul with whom he comes in contact a radiant companion and friend. So you ar- range for your guides and supplies for the mountain ascent for but @ tride of money. These guides will wear sandals and have much trouble with their feet. Most strau- gers bring strong, heavy soled shoes. But have learned something about mountain climbing all tourists ehould know. Always be provided with an honestly made pair of boots. Have the tops reach nearly to the knees. Wear them under your tramping trowsers. And always have the heavy soles well spiked with iron nails. You may not be able to cavort about like stage shepherd esses. But you will be able to hump along quietly and reach the place you started for while your over nice companions and pic- l turssque guides are limping painfully bs.
 hind, or tarrying in the clouds beneath, to heels or knife like cinders from between their bleeding toes. That was the condition of my guides before we had climbed five hours, and we were compelled to halt at mid day at no greater elevation than five thou sand feet.
 Here we remained for three hours with out single glimpse of scenery. A light, misty cloud apparently enveloped the entire mountain. But we pushed on, after much entreaGY Wltn my RulQeS when nad re- vealed my determination. to reach the peak and remain there for the night Every step was now insecure; not dangerous, but upon pumiced slag and gritty cinders, which break from under the feet alarmingly. Fall- l ing often from this sort of footing, or trip. ping oftener in the stunted heather, we final l ly reached the very top. Nothing was to be seen but streak of cinders to our right and left, and, as the mist still enveloped us, what appeared to be the level surface of some measure1ess immensity at our feet. l The hot air rose before us suffocatingly. The damp mist swirled behind us drearily. We had no more than time to grope about and hunt pockety hollow against the outer warm rim of the crater, dispose ourselves l hastily for the night and crunch little food 1 from our haversacks, when the dark fell 1 upon us palpably like the flap of some ma- | jestic wing. My guides dare not move,
 through their expectations fears. In five
 minutes was never 50 soundIy asleep. So far as know, it was as comfortable night there at the very top of Pico's spire as be- 1 fore Vicksburg in '6S, or in Chatahoochis'a death flaming forests in 'e4.
 When I awol1e. the stars, glowing with those wondrous fashings and pulsations of the stars in tropical skies, were looking squarely into my eyes. For little there