MADEIRA or THE MADEIRAS, a group of islands in the North Atlantic ocean, which belong to Portugal, and consist of two inhabited islands named Madeira and Porto Santo and two groups of uninhabited rocks named the Desertas and Selvagens. Pop. (pp I) 169,783; (1930) 211,601 ; area, 314 sq.m. Funchal, the capital of the archipelago, is on the south coast of Madeira island, in 3 3 7' 45" N. and 54' W. It is about 36o m. from the coast of Africa, 53 5 from Lisbon, 1,215 from Plymouth, 240 from Teneriffe, and 48o from Santa Maria, the nearest of the Azores.
Madeira (pop. 1911, 167,601), the largest island of the group, has a length of 3o m., an extreme breadth of 12 m., and a coast-line of 8o or 90 m. Pico Ruivo, the highest summit, stands in the centre of the island, and has a height of 6,056 ft., while some of the adjacent summits are very little lower. The depth of the ravines, the rugged peaks, often snow-covered, the bold precipices of the coast, and the proximity of the sea, afford many scenes of picturesque beauty or striking grandeur. The greater part of the interior is uninhabited, though culti vated, for the towns, villages and scattered huts are usually built either at the mouths of ravines or upon the lower slopes that extend from the mountains to the coast. The ridges be tween the ravines usually terminate in lofty headlands, one of which, called Cabo Gird°, has the height of 1,92o ft., and much of the seaboard is bound by precipices of dark basalt. The north coast, having been more exposed to the erosion of the sea, is more precipitous than the south, and presents everywhere a wilder aspect. On the south there is left very little of the indigenous forest which once clothed the whole island. A long, narrow and comparatively low rocky promontory forms the eastern extremity of the island; and here is a tract of calcareous sand, known as the Fossil Bed, containing land shells and numerous bodies resembling the roots of trees, probably produced by infiltration.
Porto Santo is about 25 m. N.E. of Madeira. Pop. 0910, 2,182. It has a length of 6 3 m. and a width of 3 m. The capital is Porto Santo, called locally the villa or town. At each end of the island are hills, of which Pico do Facho, the highest, reaches the altitude of 1,663 ft. Little but barley is grown, the limited
requirements of the inhabitants being supplied from Funchal.
The Desertas lie about 11 m. S.E. of Madeira, and consist of three islands, Ilheo Chao, Bugio and Deserta Grande, together with Sail Rock off the north end of Ilheo Chao. They present lofty precipices to the sea on all sides. Rabbits and goats abound on them. The archil weed grows on the rocks, and is gathered for exportation. The largest islet (Deserta Grande) is 64 m. long, and attains the height of 1,610 feet.
The Selvagens or Salvages are a group of three islands, 156 m. from Madeira, and between Madeira and the Canary islands. The largest island is the Great Piton, 3 m. long, and r m. broad.
There are no data for determining when volcanic action began in this locality, but looking at the enormous depth of the sur rounding sea it is clear that a vast period of time must have elapsed to allow of a great mountain reaching the surface and then rising several thousand feet, as well as to excavate the deep and wide ravines that everywhere intersect the island. At the present day there are no live craters or smoking crevices, as at the Canaries and Cape Verdes, nor any hot springs, as at the Azores.
The rarity of crateriform cavities in Madeira is remarkable. There exists, however, to the east of Funchal, on a tract 2,000 ft. high, the Lagoa, a small but perfect crater, Soo ft. in diameter, and with a depth of 150 ft.; and there is another, which is a double one, in the district known as Fanal, in the north-west of Madeira, nearly 5,000 ft. above the sea. The basalt, of which much of the outer part of the island is composed, is of a dark colour and a tough texture, with small disseminated crystals of olivine and augite and often forms a rude columnar structure. The basalt yields good building-stone, some of which is quarried.