106 



BKICKWOEK. 



ing the red wines at 100 to 125 francs the hec- 

 tolitre, and the white wines at 150 to 200. 

 The Government has ordered for gratuitous 

 distribution in Brazil 8,000 stalks of vines 

 from France, and as many from Spain and 

 Portugal, Madeira, and the Azores. The na- 

 tive vine, indigenous to the province of Matto- 

 Grosso, Vitis sycoldes, will also be widely 

 distributed. At Para a wine is made from 

 fresh cocoa beans and pulp declared by trav- 

 elers to be delicious and refreshing. 



Exploring Expeditions. The second Xingu ex- 

 pedition, under the command of Dr. von den 

 Steiuen, which in 1887 explored tbe interior 

 of Matto-Grosso, returned to Cujaba early in 

 1888, the result being the discovery of a great 

 Carib nation in the center of South America, 

 the Bacairi and Nahugua, and the discovery of 

 the Camayura and Anite tribes of Indians, 

 who speak the ancient Tupi language, and 

 whose weapons are slings. The tributary of 

 the Xingu, the Culnene, was thoroughly ex- 

 plored. 



Toward the close of 1887, Col. Labre, after 

 ascending the Madeira river as far as Bolivia, 

 descended the Rio Madre de Dios at a point 

 where it is joined by the Rio Acre or Aquiry, 

 thus proving that communication between the 

 Amazon and Bolivia is comparatively easy 

 without undergoing all the trouble caused by 

 the Beni rapids. This discovery seems to open 

 up a great future for that region. 



BRICKWORK. The construction of build- 

 ings in brick is a very ancient art. The fire- 

 resisting qualities and remarkable durability 

 of the material have contributed to make it 

 the most popular of all building materials. In 

 recent years there has been a rapid advance in 

 the art of making bricks, which has, in a measure, 

 revolutionized the construction of brick build- 

 ings. The shape was, until recently, to a great 

 extent limited to the simple parallelepiped ; but 

 bricks are now produced in a great variety of 

 forms and in different colors. Thus there are 

 bricks formed so that when laid side by side 

 they produce a continuous molding, either hori- 

 zontally, as in the case of a string-course or 

 plinth, or vertically, as in jambs of door and 

 window openings. Bricks are also made in 



MOLDED BRICK. 



wedge-shapes for arches, and of other forms 

 for the construction of pavements, curbs, sills, 

 cornices, copings, etc. The form of brick in 

 which the surface is ornamented is coming 

 more into use every day, although this descrip- 



tion of ornament is often made of terra cotta. 

 The architect has thus at his command means of 

 producing effects that were not previously with- 

 in his reach. Although the architectural effect 

 is satisfactory, the construction of brickwork, 



MOLDED BRICK FOR DOOR-JAMB. 



in regard to strength, is open to improvement. 

 The common custom is to employ face-bricks 

 of a superior quality to those on the interior 

 of the wall, and this is an obstacle to good 

 construction, as such bricks are almost invari- 

 ably larger than the commoner varieties, and 

 hence can not be properly bonded in or tied 

 together. Even a graver error, which, in the 

 United States, is almost universal, is that of 

 using what is known as "running bond." 

 Formerly the practice was to build brick- 

 work in one of the systems known respective- 

 ly as English and Flemish bond, and the an- 

 cient brick buildings in Europe are all of this 

 construction. In recent years the running 



MOLDED BRICK FOR PIERS. 



bond has, in our country, almost entirely 

 taken their place. In English bond, the bricks 

 are laid with their long and short sides (tech- 

 nically termed stretchers and headers) paral- 

 lel to the length of the wall in alternate 

 courses, while in Flemish bond they are laid 

 alternately headers and stretchers in each 

 course. Both systems have the advantage of 

 forming "bond," or, by the arrangement, lap- 

 ping the bricks to produce a solid mass. The 

 construction of running bond will depend 

 upon whether the wall is exterior or interior. 

 If the latter, the bricks will all be laid stretch- 

 ers that is, with the long side parallel to the 

 side of the wall, except in every filth or sev- 

 enth course, when they will be laid headers. 

 "When the wall is exterior, all the bricks 

 on the face are laid stretchers, bonding be- 

 ing obtained by laying the back bricks in 

 every fifth or seventh course diagonally, and 

 cutting off the corners of the face bricks at 

 these points, in order to permit their intro- 

 duction. The objection to this form of con- 

 struction is that, as headers are introduced 



