for making the Alcarrazas. 375 



man who is employed for this work ought to knead it well 

 % ith his hands, taking care to extract the (tones, even the 

 fmalleft which he may meet with, as well as every other 

 foreign body. He then forms it into lumps, which he ap- 

 plies to the lath to be made into vafes or jars. 



The alcarrazas may be baked in any kind of furnace ufed 

 by potters. Thofe employed in Spain are eighteen feet 

 fquare in the infide ; and five feet three inches in height. 

 The name -enters by a hole, one foot four inches in diameter, 

 fituated in the centre. Such a furnace will co:<;ain 800 

 pieces of different fizes, including 500 jarras. Pottery of 

 much greater ftrength than the alcarrazas may be baked in 

 the fame furnace, if .care be taken to keep up the fire for one 

 .or two hours longer. The alcarrazas, which require to be 

 only half baked, remain there ten or twelve hours, according 

 to the temperature of the air, or the greater or lei's quantity 

 of fuel employed. 



Proceffes different from that which I have here defcribed, 

 are purfucd in fo-me of the potteries in Spain; but they all 

 depend on the fame principles. After the earth has been 

 pounded, it is fuffered to macerate in a tub for twenty-four 

 hours; the whole is ftirred round with a ftick, and it h 

 freed from the ftraws or other foreign bodies that float on 

 the furface. The (tones and coarfer parts of the earth fall to 

 the bottom of the veffel, and the finer is drawn off by a hole 

 four inches above it. ' The earth is then left to dry to a certain 

 degree requifite; and it is afterwards depofited in a moifl 

 place, to be employed as may be found neceffarv. In other 

 manufactories, the earth, when dry, is ground below a roller; 

 after which it is lifted, and, the proper quantity of fait and 

 water being added, it is then kneaded. The proportion of 

 fait is not every where the fame. In fome places the fame 

 quantity of earth requires a half lefs of fait. Care is always 

 taken to choofe earth of a proper quality, without ever 

 having occafion to add to it a mixture of fand. The fame 

 fcarth is employed alio for common pottery; the only dif- 

 B b 4 ference 



