There are but few birds, except canaries, quails, ordinary poultry, and turkies, which are numerous. Several parts of this island are very hilly, and full of thick and almost impervious woods; and travelling is rendered very difficult, as you often find rocks a league in length, so rugged and sharp that they cut the shoes at every step; yet these rocks are so full of vines that they are not to be seen in summer, being covered over by the vine leaves. These vines spread their roots among the crannies and crevices of the rocks, which are so small and devoid of soil, that it is wonderful how they should find any nourishment; yet if planted in the good soil of the country, the vines will not grow. The corn and fruits of this island will not keep above a year; and unless the corn is buried under ground, it spoils in four months. On this account, every inhabitant has a pit without the town, the mouth of which is round, just large enough to admit a man, which is covered by a flat stone and secured by a lock. Some of these pits are so large as to contain two or three lasts of corn, the last containing 108 bushels Amsterdam measure, and each bushel weighing forty pounds or more. They put their corn into these pits in July, and cover the stone with earth to exclude the air, and take it out at Christmas, or considerably later, finding it then as good as when put in. The oxen in Tercera are the largest and finest that can be, equal to any in Europe, and have prodigiously wide horns. Every one has his name, like our dogs, and they are so familiar, that when the master calls one of them by his name, though among a thousand others, he will presently come to him.