The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-02
THE CANARIES OF TO-DAY
PLUTARCH'S "ISLES OF THE
 RLESTD

PLUTARCH'S "ISLES OF TWl After Five Centuries of Spanish Nils
 rulo-Thc Finest Climate In thu
 World and some of the Most Beauti
 fuI scenery.
 Especial Correspondence of the Journa
 and Courier.)
 Santa Cruz, Island of Teneriffe,
 Canary Archipelago,
 Dec. 31, 19Ol
 Were old Plutarch telling of these is- lands to-day, he would give them any other cognomen than that by whicf they were known to the ancients Isles of the Curst would be more appropriate after more than five hundred years of Spanish misrule and system of taxa tion which has made paupers of it's peo- pie. Especially in recent years, the un- natural mother-country grinds closer and closer what little grist remains, in order to pay war debts and make up for her lost sources of revenue in Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines. But there is no denying that here is climate and scenery quite beautiful enough to justify Homer's tale of the Elysian Fields. The over- shadowing peak of rntsff fr,, ~lN ~t<,1~ close behind this port of the Holy Cross, is one of the most imposing landmarks on the globe. Its he, ght above the sea is only about 12250 feet, but remember ing that the island itself is a noun tain, springing almost perpendiculary from the bottom of the ocean, six miles below, one may safely doff ones hat to Teneriffe as the loftiest peak in the world. Compared to it Mt. Blanc is pigmy, and Cotopaxi, Chimborazo, Kim chlnjunga ando ther banner mountains dwindle to the common place. The sides of Teneriffe form as regular a sugar loaf is if cut by hand-or rather, by machinery; the side of the cone is in ex- act proportion to it's height, and its tip is circular wall of rock, enclosing one of the largest craters known to man. While all the Canary Islands are vol { canic and show traces of comparatively recent volcanic action Teneriffe is the only one which still continues in erup- tion. The great crater, more than hundred feet deep and mile across, has been quiescent ever since the island was rediscovered by Europeans, (early in the fourteenth century,; but in scores of places on the mountain sides are small era ters which continually emit sulphurous steam and gases and occasionally throw out small quantities of lava. In course of centuries people have become accustomed to these threatenings and give them little heed, but it is not impossible that the villages at the base of Teneriffe may one day share the fate, of those which grew careless of Vesuvius' warnings.
 You sail into the bay of Santa Cruz with expecta ton on tip-toe, remember ing that Baron Humboldt, the greatest of travellers, declaired that here is the finest, mountain scenery in the world. Iut-except in very rare days-you are likely to be disappointed in the first view of Teneriffe. Instead of the sublime cone which imagination has de- picted, looming white and spire-like against the azure sky-you get only fit full glimpses between rifts in the clouds of what looks like a square block of mountain, dull-gray and unattractive. The north east trade winds, which pre- vail here most of the year, produce dense stratum of sea-cloud thousand feet thick, whose lower surface is two h,,v,JHod oh tho around Santa Cruz bay. This impene- trable veil does not reach up to the mountains, however, which have an- other cloud stratum of their own, be- ginning about three hundred feet above Sea-level. Between these two distinct strata of cloud there is a gap, constantly open ing and closing, through which, from the deck of an approaching steamer, 1 you obtain only fieeting views of the middle mountains, but no slightest hint of the upper heights.
 On our first visit to Teneriffe, made several years ago, we were exceptional , ly fortunate, in being treated to brief but glorious spectacle, such as mariners i seldom see, though they frequent these | waters half their lives It was late in . the afternoon when we discontentedy dropped anchor in the harbor of Santa Cruz, having been refused permission to land until the following day. Just as the sunk below the western horizon into a bed of crimson and gold, with fam shaped decorations in greenish-blue, primrose and amethyst-the cloud-cur- tains opposite were suddenly swept as de, as by invisible hands, discl~ sing mountains rising above mountains in ever ascending scale, to the extreme summit of the great white-cone, clear cut against the sky. The snow white spire flushed rosy red for moment, re- fecting the blaze of glory in the west; and then the cloud-curtains came to- gether again and no sign of moun- tain was visible.
 It was the singular whiteness of this peak that gave the island its name, reneriffe meaning White Woman" in the Guanche language. Modern Span ards call the tip of it's cone "Pico de Freyed''-a corruption of the aboriginal name, which signified Mouth of He'll The few adventurous persons who have ,caled that colossal chimney and look d down into it's depths, acknowledge he appropr ateness of the Guanche ti- le. Tereiffe is the largest of the seven