dog-violet, showing its delicate lavender-coloured flowers 11,000 feet
above the sea, and far beyond the level of any other vegetation.

It was impossible to ride down to the spot where we had left the
baggage animals, and the descent was consequently very fatiguing, and
even painful. At every step our feet sank into a mass of loose scoriæ
and ashes; and so we went slipping, sliding, and stumbling along,
sometimes running against a rock, and sometimes nearly pitching
forward on our faces. All this too beneath a blazing sun, with the
thermometer at 78°, and not a vestige of shade. At last Tom and I
reached the bottom, where, after partaking of luncheon and draughts of
quinine, we lay down under the shadow of a great rock to recruit our
weary frames.

Refreshed by our meal, we started at six o'clock on our return
journey, and went down a good deal faster than we came up. Before the
end of the pumice-stone or Retama plains had been reached, it was
nearly dark. Sundry small accidents occurring to stirrup-leathers,
bridles, and girths--for the saddlery was not of the best
description--delayed us slightly, and as Tom, Dr. Potter, Allnutt, and
the guide had got on ahead, we soon lost sight of them. After an
interval of uncertainty, the other guides confessed that they did not
know the way back in the dark. This was not pleasant, for the roads
were terrible, and during the whole of our journey up, from the port
to the Peak, we had met only four people in all--two goatherds with
their flocks, and two 'neveros,' bringing down ice to the town. There
was therefore not much chance of gaining information from any one on
our way down. We wandered about among low bushes, down watercourses,
and over rocks for a long time. Horns were blown, and other means of
attracting attention were tried; first one and then another of the