peculiar to the Canaries. The forms of vegetation must in
the main be considered North African. The character of the vegetation in
Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, islands composed of extensive plains and
low hills, with few springs, is different from that of the other
islands, which are more elevated and have many springs. The wood is less
abundant, and the vegetation less luxuriant.

_Inhabitants_.--The Guanches (q.v.), who occupied the Canaries at the
time of the Spanish invasion, no longer exist as a separate race, for
the majority were exterminated, and the remainder intermarried with
their conquerors. The present inhabitants are slightly darker than the
people of Spain, but in other respects are scarcely distinguishable from
them. The men are of middle height, well-made and strong; the women are
not striking in respect of beauty, but they have good eyes and hair.
Spanish is the only language in use. The birth-rate is uniformly high
and the death-rate low; and, despite the emigration of many families to
South America and the United States, the census of 1900 showed that the
population had increased by over 75,000 since 1877. The excess of
females over males, which in 1900 amounted to upwards of 22,000, is
partly explained by the fact that few women emigrate. Fully 80% of the
inhabitants could neither read nor write in 1900; but education
progresses more rapidly than in many other Spanish provinces. Good
schools are numerous, and the return of emigrants and their children who
have been educated in the United States, tends to raise the standard of
civilization. The sustenance of the poorer classes is chiefly composed
of fish, potatoes and _gofio_, which is merely Indian corn or wheat
roasted, ground and kneaded with water or milk. The land is, in great
part, strictly entailed.

_Government_.--The archipelago forms one Spanish province, of which the
capital is Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the residence of the civil governor,
who has under his command one of the two districts into which the
archipelago is divided, this first district comprising Teneriffe, Palma,
Gomera and Hierro. The other district includes Grand Canary, Lanzarote,
Fuerteventura, and has at its head a sub-governor, residing in Las
Palmas, on Grand Canary, who is independent of the governor except in
regard to elections and municipal administration. The chief finance
office is at Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The court of appeal, created in
1526, is in Las Palmas.