The grapes thus gathered are picked over, "escolhido," and the good and indifferent separated—the best reserved for the costliest wine. They then are thrown into the wine-press, a wide, clumsy trough of wood, into which men jump, barefooted, with their trousers rolled up, and trample out the juice. The advantage of expressing the juice with the feet is said to be that they give way to the stem and seeds, and do not squeeze out and mix their bitterness with the pure juice. Too much care can not be bestowed upon this delicate product of the vine. After the first expression has been drawn off, the remaining portion is collected together in some integument, and fastened by a cord, subjected to a lever pressure. The grapes all exhausted, the juice is conveyed to the store-houses in goat-skins, which are said to give it additional flavor, and there emptied into casks for the process of fermentation, which usually lasts four or five weeks. Water is thrown into the wine-press, after the juice has been carefully extracted, and this, mixing with the refuse, and undergoing the same process as the juice before, forms the "agoa pè," literally foot-water, which is retailed at the ventas to the lower classes at a moderate price, which they drink often immoderately, and induce diarrhea, particularly if used after the fermentation has commenced.

The vintage bringing into Funchal the peasantry, with their filled goat-skins, makes a fiesta-a frolic; and of an evening you hear every where in the environs the simple harmony of the machête—a small guitar, used to accompany the voice and dance. Every body dances here, and every body sings, if not with much grace, with great abandon; and as the delicious evenings tolerate these festivals out of doors, you see and hear all around you merriment and innocent revelry.

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THE ORIGIN OF THE GRAPE.

The wine, having ceased fermenting, is drawn off the lees, and put into sweet casks, when it is clarified with eggs, ox blood, or usually with gypsum; a soupçon of brandy, also made of the grape, having been previously added to each pipe to prevent the acetous fermentation.

The grapes that furnish the best wines are not agreeable to the palate; there are other grapes, however, most grateful in the mouth, which, with the fresh figs, the orange and the banana, constitute the customary avant-bouche of breakfast.

The grape, it is generally allowed, came from Cyprus some four centuries ago, through the patronage of the royal house of Braganza. It soon improved, under the temperate climate and on the volcanic soil

of this island: for the whole history of the vine has demonstrated that volcanic or calcareous soils are best adapted to its cultivation. In the neighborhood of Vesuvius, and within reach of its influence, flourish the choicest vines of Italy, the Falernian and others. Hermitage, the boast of France, affects the debris of decomposed hills, or mixture of calcareous and granitic soils; and, generally, the wines that most gladden the heart of man spring from the mold of the earth.

The fancy of the grape for certain soils and positions was not unknown to the ancients. They soon found that the vine throve best in slopes, basking in the sunshine, and on limy soil, and governed its cultivation accordingly. They early discovered, too, how much age develops and enhances the intrinsic value of wines. The cob-webbed bottle was as much of a boast then as now. Horace, Bacchus's poet-laureate, dwells enthusiastically on cotemporaneous amphora, which, with him, first saw the light, "Consule Plauco," while Plaucus was Consul, some forty years before, and sings its merits under an inspiration, it may be, borrowed from itself. In earlier Greece, the cultivation of the vine reached the dignity of a fine art. Her poets built lofty verse in grateful commemoration of their indebtedness:

"It made Anacreon's soul divine."

Their best and oldest wine they reserved for the greatest occasions-for the bridal-feasts, the coronation, or sacrifice to the gods. When the embassadors of Agamemnon sought Achilles's tent, with large offers of reparation, upon the acceptance of which depended the fate of Troy, before the son of Thetis would permit them to unfold their message, he directed Patroclus to bring out some of his father's own selected wine,

78

NO GOUT IN THIS WINE.

and to serve it out in unmeasured goblets. And though Homer, for reasons best known to himself, withholds the confession, there can be no doubt that the success of the mission is mainly to be attributed to the free circulation of the cup. Even Ulysses seemed to lay aside his craft, and Achilles to forget his wrongs; and ever since that occasion, in all elevated and polished society, the bottle has passed from right to left; as Homer tells us Achilles passed it.

The soil of Madeira resembles that of the Campagna Felice, where grew and grows the historic Falernian; nor are the flavor and aroma of the best wines of the two unlike, or their sanitary properties. It is a vulgar prejudice that Madeira naturally produces gout. It has been the fashion to decry it from the time the Prince-Regent forsook it for Sherry; as every one who affected to be à la mode, thought it necessary to join with royalty. Those who have deemed it expedient to make a specific charge against the wine, accuse it of producing this "old-gentlemanly" complaint-the gout. The opinion, however, of the most eminent physicians is to the contrary. So is experience on the island. Nowhere do they drink older or better Madeira than where it is made, and nowhere do they suffer less from the gout. Indeed, the disease is unknown to the natives or residents. Doubtless, excessive indulgence in Madeira wines would injure health and shorten life; and this may be said with equal truth of other wines, particularly of Champagne, which, from the too frequent admission of deleterious substances in the manufacture, is sure to undermine the constitution.

Brandied wines of any kind intoxicate, and therefore injure. It is the peculiar felicity of Madeira wines that their own alcoholic qualities are sufficient to their own safety. "Nothing in them doth suffer a sea

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES.

79

change" by exportation, for the worse. They support themselves, like virtue. That they are sometimes mixed with foreign spirits, and thus become pernicious, is true, as virtue herself suffers by contact with vice; but caveat emptor, let the buyer know the producer.

The discoveries of science have greatly facilitated the proper cultivation of the grape. The study of chemistry, particularly, has done much to improve the fruit by a careful and enlightened investigation of the properties and capacities of the soil. Nor has such been the sole accomplishment of experimental study. The aspect which the vineyard lends to the sun has proved an all-important consideration. The same vines upon the same soil, and under the same care have given very different results-a difference traced to