200 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



parlance. A man who is in a gay humour is said to 

 be ' as merry as if he had la buon' annata,' or the 

 good year of olives, and so on with the reverse when 

 a man is in a bad humour. An improvident person 

 who dies and leaves his family badly provided for, 

 is said to have left ' uriereditd di oliveti antichi ' 

 (a fortune of olive-trees past bearing), or they say 

 he has consumed all the buone annate (good years) 

 and bequeathed the bad ones. 



" The oil throughout these two prpvinces, where 

 the soil and cultivation vary but very little, is much 

 the same at its production, but its quality is very 

 considerably influenced by the nature of the wells or 

 cisterns where it may be preserved afterwards. It 

 is carried to Trani, Barletta, Bari, Molo di Bari, 

 Molfetta, Giovenazza, Brindisi, Otranto, Taranto, 

 and some other sea-ports, but its great depot for 

 some ages has been the town of Gallipoli, which 

 gives its name to the oil imported in such great 

 quantities by the English, French, Americans, and 

 other nations, though, in fact, that oil is not produced 

 exclusively in the country of Gallipoli, but through- 

 out the two provinces I have described. 



** Gallipoli owes this very advantageous preference 

 not merely to its port, which, though bad enough, 

 (as I have occasion to remember, having once been 

 nearly driven from my anchorage upon some saw-like 

 rocks,) is infinitely better and more accessible than 

 any of the others : but to the quality of the rock on 

 which the town is built. This rock is a small island 

 which is united to the main land by a bridge and 

 entirely covered by the city, whose walls follow the 

 shape of the low cliffs, and rise on all sides perpen- 

 dicularly from the sea. 



" This solid compact base is easily excavated ; and 

 in caverns thus constructed oil clarifies sooner, and 

 keeps without rancidity much longer, than in any 



