Journey from Vienna. 105 



derived from other parts of Hungary, as there was no safe re- 

 lying on the pretensions of the two rival cantons. 



The genuine wines of Tokay are supereminently excellent, 

 having a particular flavour which I cannot well define, and not 

 to be found even in such as come nearest to them. But the 

 superiority will not make amends, for the price they are at in 

 France, compared with the wines of Frontiniac and Lunel, 

 which very strongly resemble them. I have no doubt but that 

 equal care in the culture, as to the maturity and desiccation, 

 with the precaution of throwing out spoiled grapes, &c. would 

 produce wines in Languedoc that might match with those of 

 Tokay. The wines that are fabricated with grapes dried artifi- 

 cially, are somewhat like the Tokay, and are not seldom sold 

 under that name. 



In various other parts of Hungary luscious wines are made 

 according to the methods in use at Tokay. Some are white, 

 others red, but in general they are of an inferior quality* In- 

 deed the wines of Memes, on the frontiers of Transylvania* 

 may enter into rivalsbip; it is red, sweet, and very spiritous, 

 with the finest and most agreeable flavour imaginable. Several 

 prefer it to the wine of Tokay, and I am one of the number 

 yet I think it still more unlike Tokay than our best Lunel. 

 But whatever its good qualities may be, its reputation falls far 

 short of what it deserves the name of Tokay is uppermost in 

 the market. 



I shall now resume the course of my mineralogical jour" 

 neys. In quitting Tokay 1 returned to Toclsva, to pack up 

 my collections, and send them on to Pest. Then, setting out 

 from Toclsva for a series of mountains that form the frontiers 

 of the Marmoros and the Buckawine, the first part of the 

 road lay in a plain, with nothing particularly observable till I 

 came to the banks of the Bodrog, which are very agreeable, 

 along which we coasted to near Saros Patak, where we turned 

 out of the road to visit a mountain, at some distance, famous 

 for ita mill-stone quarries. On our arrival, I observed a 

 striking similitude, in all the varieties and accidents of geolo-* 

 gical circumstances, between these quarries and those of Ko* 

 nigsberg and Hlinik. 



,1 then returned to Saros Patak, where I had left my carriage, 

 and proceeded in the direction for Uj Heby; on my arrival 1 

 found M. de Szirmay waiting for me. I alighted at the house 

 of the cornitat, where was an assemblage of persons occasioned 

 by a squabble, like what occurs sometimes on the frontiers of 

 France and Spain. For a long time, the inhabitants of a tract 

 bordering on that of Erdo-Benye, had complained of their 

 neighbours for pasturing their cattle on a mountain which be- 



VOYAGES and TRAVELS, No, L, VOL. IX. P 



