22 
MADEIRA. 
up a steep path with ease, under a load that would have staggered 
one of our labourers, even for a short distance. 
WINE-CARRIERS. 
The manner of expressing the juice I have no where seen particu- 
larly described, and although a description of it may not add a relish 
to the cup, yet it will show the manufacture as conducted according 
to the old custom, at the present day. A friend of our consul was 
obliging enough to show us his works, and the machinery for 
expressing the juice from the grape. It was in a rude sort of shed. 
On our approach we heard a sort of song, with a continued thump- 
ing, and on entering saw six men stamping violently in a vat of six 
feet square by two feet deep, three on each side of a huge lever beam, 
their legs bare up to their thighs. On our entrance they redoubled 
their exertions, until the perspiration fairly poured from them ; the 
vat had been filled with grapes, and by their exertions we were 
enabled to see the whole process. After the grapes had been suffi- 
ciently stamped, and the men's legs well scraped, the pulp was made 
into the shape of a large bee-hive, a rope made of the young twigs of 
the vine being wound around it. The lever was then used, which 
has a large stone or rock attached to it by a screw. Much time is 
lost in adjusting this, and much consultation and dispute had. The 
juice flows off, and is received in tubs. The produce of the press is 
on an average about fifty gallons daily. Each gallon requires about 
ten bushels of grapes. The taste is very much like sweet cider. 
The process is any thing but pleasing, and endeavours have been 
