The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-01-09

men in Selling upon all land in sight, the
ships officers lost no time in effecting
landing as soon as the fires abated, and
taking possession of the newly created is
land in His British Majesty's name They
had great difficulty in scaling the island,
which by that time wac 800 feet high,
sides as perpendicular as those of smoke
stack, (as in reality it was}-the ground,
OF rather the sulphurous matter, dross of
iron and ashes, so hot that the boots
We're nearly burned off their feet. How
ever, they accomplished it, and planted
the English Union Jack in triumph on the
nearly round iii form, with circumfer-
ence of less than two miles. In the top
was a large basin of boiling water whence
a stream, six yards wide, flowed into the
sea, and it is asserted that so yards from
the island, the water, though 30 fathoms
deep, was still too hot to hold the hand
in, Subsequently the island crumbled
away by SLOW degrees, and finally sank
into the sea, Union Jack and all For a
long time afterwards, smoke or steam is
sued from the place where it stood, but
, now nothing is left but the dangerous reef
| aforesaid, on either side of which the wa
ter is 90 fathoms deep twice as deep as
before he last eruption. 1t gives one
strange feelings to be cruising about in
| these waters, uncertain how soon another
island may pop up alongside or the bot
tom drop out Of all things below.
Perhaps the most fascinating mountain
scenery of San Miguel is that Of Sete
Cidaies, at the western end of the island,
about ten miles from Ponta Delgada. 1t
is only from tradition that the fearful
story is told, how, nearly 500 years ago,
the now deep valley was the highest point
of the island, an immense mountain. sur
rounded by seven lesser heights, on each
of which stood a flourishing city, all des-
troyed by a terrible earthquake and vol
canic eruption. Other authorities have it
that when the island was first discovered.
there was broad and verdant plain here,
which the discoverer determined to col
oDize. Returning later, with seven COM
panles of emigrants, with whom he de-
signed to establish seven cities, he found
the plain elevated Il thousand feet into
a smoking mountain. Al any rate, the
name, Sete Cidades, means ''Seven
- mt fity oil =
vicinity, only one insignificant village 1t
is the largest crater in the island, three
and half miles long, by 40 miles wide,
and 500 feet deep, occupied by two large
lakes, which are named Lagoa Azul and
Lagoa Verde, because of their difference
in color, one being as bright green as the
other is deep cerulean blue. You may
easily visit the Sete Cdades by days
journey on donkey back. Following
winding road on the south side of the is
land, you are sometimes close to the
black sand of the beautifully curved
beach, again trotting along the edges of
dizzy precipices, hundreds of feet above
baby villages along shore; beyond, "the
ocean wild and wide,'' its nearby green
ish blue fading into a gray waste stretch
ing to the horizon. At the village of
Feteiros you turn inland and take to the
mountains. The trail leads along a sharp
high ridge, one of innumerable parallel
ridges that look from a distance as narrow
on top as the Moslem' s bridge, 'tine as
hair and sharp as a sword,' which ac-
cording to Koran spans the eternal abvss
to keep the wicked out of heaven. All the
ridges are clothed with verdant moses.
trees, bushes and luxuriant ferns in rank
abundance; and on either side of them are
deep green valleys, divided into orange
groves and bamboo fields, and the air S
filled with the warbling of canaries. The
number OF birds is remarkable in all the
Azores, and particularly in San Miguel,
where a reward is offered for the des
truction of blackbirds, bull fnches, red
breasts, chaffinchs and the dear little
brown canaries, the sum paid annually
representing death-list of APO, OOO The
game birds include woodcock, snipe,
quail and red partridges
Wilder and rougher grow the hills as
you mount to the summit of the range.
and narrower the knife blade ridges, with
gulches thousand feet deep between
them, plowed out in former years by
streams of lava flowing seward. Late in
the afternoon you catch a first glimpse of
the valley and village of Sete Cidades,
vast, mountain hollow nearly 1000 feet
deep, with its churches and cottages and
lovely twin lakes, united by narrow
neck and occupying two thirds of the val
ley. High above these lakes, to the north
and east, rise the precipitous walls of the
crater. 100 feet, being the highest sum-
init of Pico de Ledo, which overlooks
three parts of the island Carefully Won
pick your way down the steep declivities
in the early twilight, amid corn fields and
fir plantations and pastures musical with
the tinkling bells of sheep and goats. As
may be imagined accommodations for
tourists are not sumptuous in the noun
tain imprisoned hamlet of this Sleepy
Hollow. where Rim Van Winl1a ,,,irb+