Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/61

AECHIPELAGO OF MADEIRA. 43 Nevertheless, the natives are daring mariners, trading directly with Portugal and Brazil, and often supplying fresh hands to the American whalers. The cattle of Corvo, descended from the Algarvian breed, are probably the smallest in the world, the largest scarcely exceeding 36 inches, but always well-proportioned. The two islands have a typical Azorian climate, mild, moist, and breezy, with a heavier rainfall than elsewhere, more sudden gales, more verdant perennial vegetation. Although disafforested, Flores still remains the island of " Flowers," with a great variety of vegetable species and wonderfully fertile slopes and dells. All the slopes of the hills in both islands are scored by deep valleys radiating regularly from the centre to the periphery. This formation is due to the great age of the lavas, which during the course of countless centuries have been cut up into broad valleys, formerly densely covered with forest growths, now occupied by rich cultivated tracts. No eruptions, or even any violent earthquakes, have been recorded either in Flores or Corvo throughout the historic period. The craters have ceased to emit any vapours, and are now partly flooded with lakelets, partly clothed with brush- wood and herbage. The great cauldron occupying about half of Corvo, is the most regular in the whole archipelago, forming an oval cirque over 4 miles round, and intersected by numerous gorges, some converging towards the inner lake, others diverging seawards. Administration. The Azores, attached administratively to Portugal as an integral part of the kingdom, comprise three districts subdivided into twenty-two concelhos and a hundred and twenty-five communes. Each district is administered by an elective colonial council, and by a special civil government depending directly on the metropolis. The Azores send eight deputies to the Portuguese chambers, four named by Ponta-Delgada, two by each of the other districts. A tabulated list of the islands, with their districts, chief towns, and popula- tions, will be found in the Appendix. Archipelago of Madeira. The group of Atlantic islands and islets lying 500 miles to the south-east of Santa-Maria in the Azores, occupies a very insignificant space amid the surround- ing waters. But although Madeira, the chief island, with all its little dependen- cies, has a total area of less than 400 square miles, so densely is it peopled that it contains a population relatively four times greater than that of the mother-country, Portugal. * . Less European in its climate than the Azores, Madeira lies, nevertheless, much nearer to the mainland, the distance from Funchal to Sagres not exceeding 550 miles, or two days of steam navigation. The African coast is still nearer. Cape Cantin, in Marocco, lying 420 miles due east ; while Palma and Teneriffe, in the Canary group, are distant less than 270 miles to the south. Madeira is entirely