AND PORTO SANTO. 109 



to be transported. There are at least three quaUties of IVlalmsey : 

 the cadel or candy ^ is the best, but produces little ; the babosa 

 and malvazion yield pretty abundantly, but the latter is very 

 inferior''. The fermentation of malmsey is checked earlier than 

 that of the other wines, to increase its sweetness. 



The best soil for the vine is saibro, or an equal mixture of 

 saibro and pedra molle, or of the red and yellow tufa; the latter, 

 from its lightness and looseness would be washed away by the 

 rains, were it not mixed with some other soil. Equal portions of 

 saibro, pedra molle, and massapes, which is a clayey earth, seem 

 to be preferred in very dry situations, and I have seen layers of 

 pedra molle alone, about the roots of the vines, in unusually moist 

 localities'. Of course the poorer cultivators are compelled to be 

 content with the soil they find upon the spot, but when this 



'' The leaf of this has four very deep and rounded sinuses, with two others less 

 distinct ; each dentation has a small yellow tip ; the back of the leaf is as smooth as 

 the upper surface, and it is of a deep yellow green ; the other varieties are less 

 marked, but all have the same smoothness and yellow tips. It was introduced from 

 Candia, before 1445, by Prince Henry. Collegao de Noticias, p. 11. 



1 The vine was tried in the island of St. Thomas, on the coast of Africa, before 

 1550; but, although two crops were produced, it did not succeed, as it was con- 

 cluded, front " the gross richness of the soil." The figs became delicious, and 

 yielded two crops a year ; the melons only one ; olive, peach, almond, and other 

 stone-fruit trees were introduced from Spain, but although they grew beautifully, and 

 to a very large size, they never yielded any fruit. Navegagao de Lisboa a Ilha de 

 S. Thome, escrita por hum Piloto Portuguese, (in 1551.) Collegao, p. 99. 



^ I analyzed the saibro carefully, and found 46.8 silex ; 9.1 alumine ; 27.3 oxide of 

 iron, 2.7 soda ; .3.8 water ; 10.3 loss (principally vegetable matter), at a red heat in 

 a plaUna crucible. The casealha, a decomposing basaltic conglomerate (partially 

 deposited above the compact or columnar), is esteemed next to the saibro and pedra 

 molle ; this is the heaviest soil, the specific gravity being 2. 1 . The barros (a coarser 

 and less pure kind of clay than the massapes), and marracote, a drier kind of barros, 

 are the least welcome soils a vine cultivator can find on his tract. The pedra molle 

 seems to contain less soda, as well as less iron, than the saibro, which is of a lower 

 specific gravity. Saibro, 1.75 ; pedra molle, 1.95 ; massapes, 1.99 ; araya, 1.99. 



