TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 101 
- vided into a monthly cycle of giri or turns of one hour each, and conducted, in its 
proper succession, into the several channels which connect it with the separate oc- 
cupations. Of the public works of Madeira, the Jevadas are much the most consi- 
derable and much the best managed. 
The oxen, of which the breed in the island is very active and well-formed, are 
the only beasts of draught. Carts and carriages, and even wheelbarrows, are un- 
known: heavy burdens are drawn on sledges by two oxen: lighter burdens of all 
kinds are carried on the heads of men and women. One-third at least of the in- 
habitants of the island are thus employed as beasts of burden, carrying fuel from 
the mountains, articles of produce and skins of wine from their farms. There 
are some portions of road which are very carefully constructed and paved; but 
there is hardly a single continuous well-formed road to be found; none to connect, 
for purposes of draught, the distant parts of the island with each other. Their 
steepness also in many cases is formidable. There is a principal road in the 
northern part of the island near St. Anne, with an inclination of 27°. One of the 
most carefully-paved roads, only recently made, leading from Funchal to the moun- 
tains, has an inclination of 23°: a road with an inclination of | in 4 is considered 
practicable and convenient: the Simplon has an inclination of 1 in 12, which is 
nearly the limit of that which is practicable for carriages. All the horses, or rather 
ponies, are shod with particular reference to these steep and precipitous roads. 
The condition of the people in the villages and remote districts is miserable in the 
extreme, more particularly since the failure of the potatoes. With the exception of 
Skibbereen and a few other places in Ireland, I have nowhere seen such squalid 
poverty: their food is chiefly maize, pumpkins, salt fish, and the tunny-fish, which is 
caught in great abundance off the island. Begging is universal and very importunate, 
yet the people are generally very patient and courteous. They never meet a stranger 
without a salutation. They are contented with the means of existence, and would 
maintain no steady or continuous exertion to attain much beyond it ; but the occa- 
sional labour which they will go through, more particularly in bearing heavy burdens 
across the mountains, is astonishing. 

On a Comparative Statement of Prices and Wages during the Years from 
1842 to 1849. By G. R. Porrer, F.R.S. 
The usefulness, not only to ourselves, but to those who will come after us, of records 
such as those which I have now to bring forward as a sample, will be apparent to every 
one who has at any time attempted to investigate the comparative condition at different 
periods of our working population. To begin with what is emphatically called ‘‘ the 
staff of life,’ and the price of which is a thing of the very first importance to those 
who depend upon daily or weekly wages. The four-pound loaf of bread sold in the 
bakers’ shops in London has been, in the month of July of each year from 1842 to 
1849, as follows :— 
1842 isscve0s as ee 9} BOAG wit ress osiicnones 8h 
1643 2b fo .h0ct Le ees 7d. 1847 ...000c0 Sees lz 
2 ee . 82d. 1848 isa nies daschies, Maas pm 
DBAGE Ie, iiciasss 22050023 72d. BEG | aah La 7d. 
_ When it is considered that from one-half to three-fourths of the expenditure of the 
' most numerous class of the people is for this one article, it cannot be held of light 
_ importance that a saving of 25 per cent. is made in its cost. Such a saving to the 
family of a working man—consisting of himself, his wife, and four children—can 
hardly be less than 2s. per week, which is too often a very considerable proportion 
of the man’s earnings ; so that it will greatly depend upon this head of expenditure 
whether or not he and his family are able to provide themselves with decent clothing 
and with other matters, which, although perhaps not absolutely, nor equally neces- 

_ sary to the support of life, are yet most important towards the comfort and content- 
ment of the family. The price of meat is, unfortunately, not a matter of such uni- 
versal interest as the cost of bread; and it is to be feared that even in ordinarily 
prosperous times there are very many of our fellow-subjects who are forced to forego 
its use. But it must be obvious that the numbers thus subjected to privation will, 
_as already explained, greatly depend upon the cost of bread,—while in large towns 
it will be found upon inquiry that few or none are, except in the very dearest times, 
deprived of the occasional or perhaps the habitual use of meat. The prices as quoted 
