Local Color 291 



twenty-five feet high. Here half a million gal- 

 lons of wine is stored. The tun of Heidelberg 



o 



has been held up as one of the wonders of the 

 world, but this underground cellar has ten times 

 its capacity. From without its real nature 

 would not be suspected, as it is ornamental, four- 

 sided with a gentle slope, the top laid off with 

 geometrical figures, a four column pagoda-like 

 structure rising in the centre supporting an urn, 

 this forming a cover to the descent into the cis- 

 tern. At times this vast depository is pumped 

 dry and cleaned, and a better idea of its size 

 cannot be conveyed than to say that a ball has 

 been held here. People have danced in the dry 

 bed of the lake of wine. 



One of the charming and little-known regions 

 along the Sierra Nevada near San Francisco is 

 Mission San Jose. Some years ago the winery 

 caught fire and the water gave out. Some men 

 might have been discouraged, but not so the vine- 

 yardists of Mission San Jose. The hose was 

 led to the big claret tuns and the fire was ex- 

 tinguished with claret. The same experience 

 was had with a winery in the Santa Cruz Moun- 

 tains. A forest fire threatened the buildings and 

 valuable machinery and cut off the water, but 

 ten thousand gallons of new wine pumped upon 

 it in lieu of water saved the day. 



While the grapes are coming in and being 

 pressed the very air about the great winery has 



