sent down for us a superabundance of good things,grapes, apricots, figs, and large bottles of Callista wine, sweet, red, and thick, almost like a liqueur, and which is especially refreshing when mixed with water."-p. 11. "We ate a cheerful dinner at the Dimarch's, with compliments and toasts, which were drunk in nine different kinds of wine,- Bacchus-wine, Santo-wine, Night-wine, Callista-wine, and other kinds,-- all good; but the wine of Bacchus, nevertheless, the best."—p.10.

More than sixty species of grape are naturalized at Santorin, but in the manufacture of wine, both red and white, one sort, the assyrticon, is almost exclusively employed. Fruit for the table is raised in great profusion, and some of the vines yield enormous grapes, the bunches weighing sometimes as much as ten or twelve pounds. "I have seen," says a credible witness, "a pannier of 48 lbs. filled by a single stem, although this is of rare occurrence." The fruit in general is much more juicy than in France, and when ripe does not set the teeth on edge, as in some countries. In former times, the chief products of the island were barley and cotton, and more anciently still the olive also, but the culture of the vine has nearly superseded that of every other. In ordinary seasons the growths yield about 9000 pipes of wine, but in years of abundance 11,000 pipes are obtained, and sometimes more. The exports being thus reduced to the single article of wine, the commercial relations of Santorin have hitherto been confined, for the most part, to the limits of the Black Sea. The principal consignments go to Taganrok at the mouth of the Don, to Odessa, and to Tanais in the sea of Azoph. At Taganrok the wine is bought by the Cossacks, who convey it at great cost to the interior

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provinces of Russia, where it undergoes various manipulations, and is too often sadly disparaged by mixture with wines of inferior quality. For this compound its reputation serves as a passport, the genuine being reserved to the use of families of opulence and rank. In still earlier times, when the vineyards were as yet but inconsiderable, the shipments were mostly restricted to the neighbouring islands. By degrees, however, the field of enterprise was extended; the shores of the Euxine were visited, and the wines at the present day are received with the same unqualified approval in the New World as in many of the principal cities of Europe. "In fine," remarks our intelligent informant, M. l'Abbé, "I would here repeat, that the Santoriniotes well understand how to fabricate their wine, and permit no sophistication whatever; they neglect no care to preserve it in its natural state, or to guard it from deterioration either in colour, flavour, or purity, so as to ensure for the consumer all the reputation it deserves."

In the present, as in former ages, the best Greek. wines are of the luscious sweet class. Those made in Cyprus and Samos, the red muscadine of Tenedos, and the white of Smyrna, vie with the rich Hungarian vintages, and have probably undergone little or no change since the days of Strabo and Pliny, who reckon them among the most estimable in the world. Scio still produces a wine called Homer's nectar, as it did 2000 years ago: the white and black grapes are mingled to make this wine, which is in high esteem in the East.

Selim II. conquered the island of Cyprus that he might be the master of its vinous treasures. At that time wines of eight years old were found that burned like oil. After sixty or seventy years, some of this

wine becomes as thick as honey. Several of the islands, however, as Ithaca, Cephalonia, Candia, and Cyprus, yield abundance of dry red wines, which, with a little more care in the manufacture, might be rendered fit for general exportation. In some places the product is collected in skins smeared with tar, which impart a disagreeable taste, and unsuit it for use until subdued by long keeping; but the poverty of the farmers will seldom allow them to adopt proper means for preserving their produce. Some of the Cyprus wine is so tainted with the flavour of the pelt, that it cannot be drunk without the addition of water, except at the risk of a severe headach; and one growth of Chios was said to be so potent, as to overcome almost instantly the stranger who might unwittingly quaff the enticing draught.

The IONIAN ISLANDS yield good and serviceable wines, whenever care is exerted in the management of the vintage. The red wine of Corfu is distinguished by its lightness and delicacy: it also produces, from dried raisins, a cordial liqueur called Rosolio. Cephalonia, besides the red kinds common to the other islands, has a white muscadine peculiar to its own shores; and the Zante wines, both dry and sweet, are in much esteem. Of the latter, one is a vin de liqueur, made from the Corinth grape. They have also a rich muscadine wine, which is without a rival in the Levant, and is thought to resemble in character the imperial Tokay. All the varieties grown on the island are strong, and they make one kind which is taken as a cordial, notwithstanding water is added to the grapes after they are crushed.

But the isles of the Ionian sea, once known as the Republic of the Seven Islands, and the neighbouring coasts, are renowned more for their bountiful supplies

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of the useful dried currant than for rich or mellow wine. This article of domestic import, the staple of modern Greek commerce, is the fruit of a species of vine bearing so close an affinity and resemblance to the ordinary grape plant, as to deserve a passing notice. In form, leaf, size, and mode of growth, to the eye of the casual observer it presents little or no apparent difference, its berries growing in similar bunches, which look exactly like miniature black grapes. The word currant is a corruption of Corinth, from which oncecelebrated Grecian city they were first imported, and it has similarly impressed its name for the fruit on most European languages. A stout, full-bodied white. wine, called Corinthe, of considerable merit and agreeable flavour, is obtained from its fruit, which also yields a sparkling variety of good quality, with much of the character and briskness of Champagne. Corinth is delightfully situate in the centre of the Morean isthmus. From the neighbouring heights of Helicon and Parnassus the view is incomparable. Three years ago an earthquake of two minutes' duration overwhelmed the city, and it is now little else than a mass of rubbish and loose stones. The inhabitants have ceased to build on the same site, as the recurrence of decennial catastrophes seems to prove that a volcanic axle of earthquakes passes under the ancient city, and Patras now takes the lead in foreign commerce.

The currant vine is an exceedingly tender plant, requiring the greatest care in its cultivation; yet in the end it well repays the cost and patience bestowed upon it. It is extremely fastidious in its selection of the soil and temperature suited to its growth, and its after developement is so slow, that for six years it bears

no fruit at all, and does not yield a full crop before the fifteenth season. It thrives best on the southern shores of the gulfs of Corinth and Lepanto, and on the ancient Peloponnesus. The only other places where currants will grow are three of the more fertile of the Ionian isles, for they resist every attempt at transplantation in other countries of similar temperature or latitude. In Sicily and Malta the cuttings passed into the ordinary grape, and in Spain they would not take root at all; even at so short a distance as Athens recent similar and persevering attempts signally failed, yet the fertile and lovely island of Zante is nearly buried in the profusion of its innumerable plantations. During the long and desolating war of Greek independence the cultivation was neglected, and the vines were mostly burned and destroyed; but in more peaceful times industry resumed its quiet sway; the currant trade is again in the ascendant; it has already assumed gigantic proportions, and mainly contributes to the wealth and employment of the population. The annual aggregate exportation of currants from the Morea alone now amounts to 70,000,000 lbs., the greater part of which is shipped to Great Britain.