IhS ST. TROPEZ. 



The universal use of cork as stoppers for bottles 

 does not date further back than the seventeenth centurw 

 It coincides with the spread of our narrow necked glass 

 bottles which were manufactured not earlier than the 

 fifteenth centur\-. hi the Middle Ages small vessels 

 were made of wood, earthenware or metal and closed 

 with stoppers of the same material, or onh' sealed with 

 wax. The casks were bunged with wooden plugs. The 

 ancients used wooden as well as cork stoppers tor tlieir 

 amphorae, and smeared them with a cement made of 

 resin, chalk and oil, or of pitcli. More commonh the 

 openings of tliese casks were onh' daubed o\'er u-ith 

 g3'psum, resin, pitch or wax. Oil was poured on the 

 ^\inc, as is still done in Itah' tochi\-, to prevent the ac- 

 cess of the air. According to Plin\' pieces of cork were 

 used even hv the Romans as tloats for tisliing nets and 

 as buo\'s for anchors; and the soles of ladies' shoes were 

 also made of it. 



CHAPTER ITT. 



The Gulf of St. Tropez, the Sinus Sambracitanus 

 of the ancients, cuts deeph into the Montagnes des 

 Maures. From a distance the liouses of St. Tropez on 

 its shore gleam gaih' and the ba\' l(X)ks like an inland 

 sea. Its azure waters are as smooth and clear as a 

 dark sapphire. We look across it to the Montagnes des 

 Maures whose wooded heights stand out sharph' from 

 the clear hea\'ens. Eastwards, in the mist^■ distance, 

 the jagged summits ot the ILsterel close the view, lUul 

 above them, high in the clouds, lloat the snow\' Alps. 



