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which they have been at considerable pains to manufacture, but then it is not to be drank beyond their own families, and has no connexion with what is commonly sold in the country with respect to quality.

Naples produces the best wines in this division of Europe, in consequence of the conformity which a volcanic soil bears to the cultivation of the vine. The Lacryma Christi is made here; it is an exceedingly rich wine, red, and with an exquisite flavour, and is supposed to be the Falernian juice celebrated by Horace. A Dutchman is stated to have once said, when he swallowed a glass of it, "Oh Christ, why did'st thou not weep in my country?" In Tuscany greater attention is given to the cultivation of the vine, and what is curious, is, that the noblemen in Florence actually sell wine by retail from the cellars of their palaces. It is sold in flasks capable of containing three quarts. Very good wines are produced in Savoy and Piedmont; in Sardinia, where the fruit is so abundant, as that a portion of it is left on the vines from want of vessels to contain the juice; in Elba, where the quantity made is small, but of excellent quality and of the character of good port; in the Lipari Islands, and finally in Sicily.

In Hungary and Austria, the cultivation of vines is quite on a different footing. Of Hungarian wines, the species are counted to the number of thirty, of which the famous Tokay is one of the most distinguished. Tokay is the name of a town situated in the middle of the district where the vines which produce this wine grow. This district extending about twenty miles, called the Submontine or Hegyalla, in High Hungary, is in the county of Zemplin. In this district the grape is large, and of a rich luscious taste The grapes for this wine are the Hungarian Blue, when ripe called Trockenbeeren; being collected late in the season, and almost shrivelled up to raisins. They are carefully picked one by one. The species called Formint and Hars-levilii furnish the prime Tokay, called Tokay Ausbruch. The vines are reared pollard fashion, and the vintage seldom takes place before the end of October. The Trockenbeeren are by that time over-ripe, and are carefully placed on a table grooved, from which the juice runs into earthen jars, and forms the rich "essence of Tokay," from their own pressure. This wine is like the syrups of the south of France, and is set aside by itself. The quantity made is small and very thick, and is considered most precious. The grapes are then trodden in a vat with the naked feet, and a small portion of wine essence is added to the must, which is allowed to stand twentyfour hours, and then set to ferment. This last is the famous Tokay wine, or Tokay Ausbruch, (ausbruch, or flowing forth of the syrup). It ferments for two or three days or more, during which it is stirred, and the matters which arise to the surface are skimmed off. It is then strained into casks. Tokay has a powerful aroma. It does not become bright for some time after it is in the cask. Tokay Ausbruch contains sixty-one parts of essence, and

eighty-four of wine. The Maslas is a more diluted species of the Tokay, containing sixty-one parts of essence, and a hundred and sixty-nine of wine. The best wine of Tokay has so peculiar a flavour of the aromatic kind, and is so luscious, that the taste is not easily forgotten. This wine sells in Vienna for twelve pounds sterling the dozen. The vineyard belongs to the Emperor and certain of the nobles; that called Taiczal produces the best. The side of the slope on which the vineyards lie, is about nine thousand yards long; but the choice portion called Mezes-Male, is but six hundred, and is reserved, with its produce, for the Emperor and a few of the nobles.

Greece and Russia afford excellent wines, and in the former country, in the island of Cyprus, the method of making the article is the same as was practised in the best days of ancient Greece. In this island a practice is followed of burying a jar of wine on the birth of a child; this is dug up on the marriage of the individual, and is never sold. Wines of varied merits are not only made, but form a good article of exportation from most of the Greek islands; the Ionian islands are likewise the seat of vine cultivation. With respect to the share which Russia has in this sort of growth, the author informs us that its wines bear no comparison in quantity to the ardent spirit to which a coarse half-civilized people of the north may well be supposed to yield the preference. About twenty-eight millions of gallons of coarse brandy are every year distilled in that empire, besides a variety of other liquors, but, as may be inferred, little of this is of the product of the vine. In the southern parts of the empire the vine has of late years been cultivated with success, and as the territory of the Tzars is extended in this direction by force or fraud, the extent of wine produce will be yet more enlarged. That manufactured at present is chiefly made at Astracan and in the Crimea.

After discussing the pretensions of the various wines of Persia, and the East, of Africa, and the two Americas, Mr. Redding concludes the historical portions of his work, and adds two valuable chapters of a completely practical nature, and which are deeply deserving the attention of all families interested in the preservation of their wine. The making of wines is a theme developed by the author in a most interesting manner, and at the same time in a way so familiar as that the instructions conveyed by him cannot, by possibility, be misunderstood by even the most careless. He takes in, in his descriptions, ample views of the true principles on which the various processes should be founded-such as fermentations, the state of the wine in cellars, the choice of wines, the best method of cellaring the wine when chosen, the bottling of it, its preservation, mixing, strengthening, and amelioration. The last chapter presents a very elaborate account of the adulterations to which the juice of the grape, in all its multiplied forms, is exposed, and from the number of wines which are either manufactured un

der fictitious names, or are adulterated in this country, it may, with great propriety, be denominated an universal wine manufacture. We shall give a specimen of the tests by which the adulteration of commodities in general use, may be most easily detected.

'There are a variety of tests which may be applied to the more vulgar adulterations by those who do not understand chemistry. Sulphur will detect the presence of lead, turning the wine black or dark, if it be present, sulphurated hydrogen gas, acidulated by muriatic acid, will detect it in a moment. Alum is detected by equal quantities of lime-water and wine being mixed and examined within sixteen hours, when if there be no alum, crystals will be found, easily separable by filtration; a muddy deposit will be seen if there be. The presence of colouring bodies is least injurious, and may be discovered by numerous tests, such as lime-water, if beet-root has been employed, acetate of lead, bilberries, elder, or log-wood. The best mode, where adulteration is suspected, is to apply to any chemist of tolerable skill, who can analyze the wine. According to M. Chevalier, the following are the best wine tests for the colouring matter:-potash, applied as a re-agent, to ascertain the natural colour of the wine; this it changes from red to bottle or brownish-green. The change of colour produced by this agent, it must be remarked, is different in the wine of different ages. No precipitation of the colouring matter takes place when potash is applied. Acetate of lead, lime-water, muriate of tin with ammonia, and with subacetate of lead, should not be employed, because incapable of producing uniform colours with wines of natural colour only. Ammonia may be employed, the change of colour it produces not perceptibly varying. It is the same with a solution of alum, to which potash has been added, which will answer the purpose.'-pp. 338, 339.

There is no necessity, we should think, for us to express our opinion upon this book, as our estimate of its merits may be easily ascertained from the space which we have assigned to the notice of its contents. It is one of the most comprehensive, and perhaps, exact specimens of historical literature which we possess, and is remarkable for the spirit of impartiality which breathes over and gives life to a mass of curious information, the result of a diligence and industry which reflect the highest credit on the author.

ART. IX.-Tom Cringle's Log. In 2 vols., 12mo.: Edinburgh, Blackwood; London, Cadell.

1833.

WITH the single exception of Captain Hall, this is, by far, the most amusing of the tars who have in recent years taken to the diversion of auto-biography. It consists of a continued narrative of the bustling adventures of an active sailor's life on the seas and on the land, when particular circumstances brought him to the latter. We use the word sailor in its generic sense, because it applies to the naval officers as well as to the operatives, and that the representative of Tom Cringle was a member of the first class, sufficiently appears from the text. He joined the line of battle

ship, the Kraaker, at Portsmouth, as a midshipman, and from that moment determined to keep a log-book for himself. The first of his troubles, which, by the way, as treated by himself, seem be to no troubles at all, was of a nature to afford him a very faithful specimen of the sort of life which awaited him. After a short service on board the Kraaker, this ship was sent home, and Cringle having got sick of the fleet service, obtained an appointment to an eighteen-gun sloop, the Torch, which sailed after he joined her to the North Sea. On the voyage the Torch had to navigate in a direction off Harwich, through a fleet of fishingboats, at anchor. From these they took with them two NorthSea pilots, as the weather looked threatening. One of the pilots. presented a most extraordinary appearance, if we are to believe the reporter, for he was a tall raw-boned subject, about six feet or so, with a blue face-it could not be called red-and a hawk's-bill nose of the colour of bronze. His head was defended from the weather by what is technically called a south-west, pronounced sow-west,cap, which is in shape like the thatch of a dustman, composed of canvass, well tarred, with no snout, but having a long flap hanging down the back to carry the rain over the cape of the jacket. His chin was embedded in a red comforter that rose to his ears. His trunk was first of all cased in a shirt of worsted stocking-net; over this he had a coarse linen shirt, then a thick cloth waistcoat; a shag jacket was the next layer, and over that was rigged the large cumbrous pea jacket, reaching to his knees. As for his lower spars, the rig was still more peculiar ;first of all, he had on a pair of most comfortable woollen stockings, what we call fleecy hosiery-and the beauties are peculiarly nice in this respect-then a pair of strong fearnaught trowsers; over these again are drawn up another pair of stockings, thick, coarse, rig-and-furrow as we call them in Scotland, and above all this were drawn a pair of long, well-greased, and liquored boots, reaching half-way up the thigh, and altogether impervious to wet. However comfortable this costume may be in bad weather on board, it is clear enough that any culprit so swathed, would stand a poor chance of being saved, were he to fall overboard. The ship bore away for the port of Cuxhaven, on the banks of the Elbe, where they were to deliver their cargo, which consisted of a single gentleman, who appears to have been a foreigner, speaking the English language in the vilest fashion, but filling the station of an emissary from the British government to the northern part of the European continent. When the vessel neared Cuxhaven, they sent aloft a signal for a pilot, but no return followed from the shore, which looked during the whole of the day as if it had been abandoned by every thing in the shape of a living creature. The upshot is, that the port was at the moment occupied by the French, who on the next attempt of the ship to approach, announced their hostility by a discharge of guns, which

committed no small degree of destruction on the crew of the Kraaker. Ultimately the Captain determined to put the emissary on board, and at night he was conveyed in a boat with muffled oars to Cuxhaven. The boat was well manned, and Cringle was one of the party. The result of this expedition was, that the whole of them put themselves into a position which placed them at the mercy of the French; they were arrested and put into the custody of separate bodies of soldiers, and were thus themselves separated also. Cringle, however, was fortunate enough to have met with a friend in his distress, and to that friend he seems to be indebted for the most decided testimonies of kindness. Hamburgh was the place in which he was destined to be placed, and having been conducted to a large house in that city, he was introduced into an apartment where some young officers were already seated, and he commemorates with grateful feelings the attention which they showed him. His friend, already alluded to, invited him to his father's villa in the suburbs, where he was clothed and fed for three days, and then assisted him in making his escape to the Torch, which still lay off the harbour of Cuxhaven, and which almost immediately weighed for England.

The subsequent chapters describe the cruise of the Torch to the southern coast of Ireland, and afterwards to the West Indies, the adventures attending which were numerous and striking in their circumstances. Continuing their voyage to Jamaica, nothing particular occurred until the ship reached Port Royal, from which station she was ordered down to the leeward part of the island to give protection to the coasting trade. About a fortnight after they began the voyage, the Torch came to anchor in Bluefield's Bay. It was between eight and nine in the morning, when the land wind had died away, and the sea-breeze had not yet set in, so that scarcely a breath was stirring. At this moment Cringle was looking out towards the eastern horizon watching the first dark-blue ripple of the sea-breeze, when a rushing noise passed over his head. He looked up and saw that it was the gallinaso, the great carrion crow of the tropics. It was sailing seaward over the brig, and this direction being contrary to the natural habits of the bird, it excited the attention of Cringle. He followed its motions with his glass, and saw it approach a dark speck in the offing which turned out to be a small boat. He went into the gig with a part of the crew, and, as they approached the boat, one of the party said that he saw some one peering over the bow. They drew nearer, and Cringle saw him distinctly. Why don't you haul the sheet aft and come down to us, sir," was the question put to the supposed individual, but he neither moved nor answered; and, as the boat rose and fell on the short sea raised by the first of the breeze, the face kept mopping and mowing over the gun-whale. "I will soon teach you manners, my fine fellow," said Cringle: "give way men," said he, and he fired his musket, when the crow that he had seen rose from the boat into VOL. III. (1833) no. III.

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