“The central district is composed of five islands, of which Fayal and Pico are the principal. It is three and a quarter miles across the channel between them at the narrowest place. Fayal takes its name from _faya_, a beech-tree, and is about a dozen miles in diameter. Of its population of thirty thousand, one-third are here in Horta, and the rest in nine villages in the interior. This place is the capital, and it has the best harbor in the island; but it is exposed to winds from the north and north-east, and from the south-east to the south-west. The south-east gales are the worst ones, and they rake the anchorage so that it sometimes becomes necessary for ships to put to sea to keep out of danger. “Of course you have noticed the high mountain to the south-east of us; it is the peak of Pico, from which the island takes its name. This island is twenty-five miles long, and from two to nine miles wide. It is covered with extinct volcanoes. The sugar-loaf peak of Pico is over seven thousand feet high. The kind of clouds which gather around the mountain indicate the coming weather, so that it is a barometer to those who have the skill to read the signs. The island contains a large population. By the Statesman’s Year Book, I find that the area of these islands is a little less than a thousand square miles, and the population about two hundred and fifty thousand. The grape disease, of which I have spoken before, extended to the Western Islands; and since that time the wine-trade has been very small. The principal production is oranges. The wine from this island was called Pico-Madeira; and it is still manufactured to some extent. “St. George is thirty miles long, and five wide; and has a peak four thousand feet high in the centre. Griciosa is about seven miles in diameter, and noted for its fertility, producing all kinds of grain in abundance. Terceira was so called because it was the third island discovered by the Portuguese, the word being the feminine of the ordinal ‘third.’ It is about twenty miles in diameter, and exceedingly fertile. It has been called the principal island of the group. Angra was formerly the capital of the islands, and is a larger place than Horta, containing over ten thousand inhabitants, which is a quarter of the population of the island. Its harbor is sheltered from the west by the promontory of Monte Brazil, over five hundred feet high. It is one of the finest of the Atlantic cities.