Rhine wine generally. The best growths of vines are those called die Dorndechanei and der Stein, which are near the town of Hockheim; and the most delicious product is called the Kirchenstuck. Marsala is a light white wine resembling Madeira, imported from Sicily. Of the red wines of Burgundy, the most celebrated are Romané-Conti, Chambertin, Clos Verigeôt, and Richebourg. Among other excellent French wines are Sauterne, Hermitage, St. Pery. Tokay is of Hungarian growth, and is a sweet, rich, but not cloying, strong, full-bodied, bright, and clear wine.' The quality in wines which in liquids generally would be known as flavour must depend, mainly, in the former, on the acids, sugar, and alcohol of which they are composed, but the fragrance and an important part of the actual flavour of wines are due to the presence of some peculiar volatile matter, the effect of which is technically distinguished from the simple flavour, and which is known as the perfume or bouquet of the wine. The nature of this odoriferous principle is still not satisfactorily known. An almost endless number of devices is resorted to for the purpose of heightening natural qualities, or of imparting those which the best wine should possess to products otherwise very inferior, or for producing a fictitious and unnaturally strong wine for exportation, simply because the taste of the consumer is known by the vintagers to be artificial and unsatisfied with the natural product of the grape. In fact, apart from the worse forms of adulteration, the modifications of and departures from natural wines occur mainly in those intended for exportation; so that simple, pure, and comparatively unexciting wines are, as the rule, enjoyed only by the inhabitants of the wineproducing countries. To such an extent is this tampering carried that it may safely be said that no natural Sherry or Port whatever comes to this country, though it is doubtless true that the lighter wines, such as the sorts known as Claret, the Hungarian, German, and other white wines, generally approach in various degrees much more nearly to genuineness. Duties. The rates now levied are:-On wines imported in casks containing less than 18 per cent. of spirit, 1s. per gall.; if less than 26 per cent. of spirit, Is. 9d.; if less than 40 percent., 25. 5d.; if less than 45 per cent., 2s. 11d.; wines imported in bottles, 2s. 5d. per gall.

substances susceptible of the spirituous fermentation, none is capable of being converted into so good wine as the juice of the grapes of France, or of other countries that are nearly in the same latitude or in the same temperature. The grapes of hotter countries, and even those of the southern provinces of France, do indeed furnish wines that have a more agreeable, that is, a more saccharine taste; but these wines, though they are sufficiently strong, are not so spirituous as those of the provinces near the middle of France; at least, from these latter vines the best vinegar and brandy are made. The geographical range of the grape is very extensive. In the eastern hemisphere, excepting perhaps the colder eastern coast and central regions of Asia, it is from about Lat. 54° N. to 45° S. The eastern portion of the American continent being colder than its western shores, the limit of successful vine culture in the former is probably about Lat. 45° N. The grape does not, however, through this entire range produce a sufficient percentage of sugar to be capable of fermenting into a sound, good wine. Tolerably good sweet wines are made at the Cape of Good Hope and Australia. In Europe wines of the best quality are not produced above Lat. 51° N. As an illustration of the effect of climate and situation, the Muscat grape matures on the Rhine only so far as to be fit for the table, while in the south of France it furnishes the rich Frontignac, Rivesallis, and other sweet wines. So the same variety of grape which on the Rhine yields the well known Hochheimer, near Lisbon affords the almost wholly different Bucelas; at the Cape, the Cape Hock; and, formerly, at Madeira, the delicious Sercial; neither of which latter bears any distinct resemblance to the true Rhenish. The principal wines in use in this country are Port, Sherry, Claret, Champagne, Madeira, Hock, Marsala, &c. Port is the produce of a mountainous district on the banks of the Douro, about 70 miles east of Oporto. Sherry is principally produced in the vicinity of Xeres, near Cadiz, in Spain. Claret is the term used in England to designate the produce of the Gironde. Of these the best are Château, Lafite, Latour, and Château Margaux, in Medoc, and Haut Brion, in the Graves district. Champagne is well known as one of the best French wines: it is named from the province of which it is the produce. There are two kinds made, red and white WIRE [Ger. Draht, Fr. Fil d'archal], a wines, but it is only the latter which is exported, piece of metal drawn through the hole of an the former being made chiefly for home con- iron into a thread of a fineness answerable to sumption. The white wines are divided into the hole it passed through. Wires are frethree qualities:-The sparkling, or moussaux,quently drawn so fine as to be wrought along which is most popular; the creaming, or Crémant, which is considered by connoisseurs the best; and the still, or sillery, which resembles somewhat the white wines of Medoc, Madeira, of which there is but little now made, is the produce of the island of the same name, In 1852 disease began to infect the vines, and ultimately rendered them unproductive. The name of Hockheimer, or Hock, is applied to

with other threads of silk, wool, flax, &c. The metals most commonly drawn into wire are gold, silver, copper, and iron. Gold wire is made of cylindrical ingots of silver, covered over with a skin of gold, and thus drawn through a vast number of holes, each smaller and smaller, till at last it is brought to a fineness exceeding that of a hair. That admirable ductility which makes one of the distinguish

the other is not. There are also counterfeit

Y

so called by Henry I., from the length of his

Own arm.

ing characters of gold is nowhere more conspicuous than in this gilt wire. A cylinder of forty-eight ounces of silver, covered with a ccat of gold only weighing an ounce, is usually drawn into a wire two yards of which weigh no more than one grain, or ninety-eight yards chiefly to measure cloths, stuffs, &c. It conYARD, a long measure used in England, of the wire weigh no more than forty-nine grains:tains three feet, or thirty-six inches, and was and one single grain of gold covers the ninetyeight yards, so that the ten-thousandth part of a grain is about one-eighth of an inch long. Silver wire is the same as gold wire, except that the latter is gilt or covered with gold, and gold and silver wires; the first made of a cylinder of copper, silvered over and then covered with gold, and the second of a like cylinder of copper, silvered over and drawn through the iron after the same manner as gold and silver wire. Brass wire is drawn after the same manner as the former. Of this there are various sizes, suited to different kinds of work The finest is used for the strings of musical instruments. The pin-makers likewise use great quantities of brass wire. Iron wire is drawn of various sizes, from half an inch to one-tenth of an inch in diameter, and smaller.

WOOL [Fr. Laine, Ger. Wolle), the fleecy covering or pile of the sheep. Wools are distinguished by their length of staple and by the firmness of their filaments. It is an article of great importance in the commercial world, and, in consequence, great attention is paid to the rearing of sheep in all parts of the globe, but more especially where pasturage is most abundant. "In reference to textile fabrics, sheep's wool is of two kinds, the short and the long stapled, each of which requires different modes of manufacture in the preparation and spinning processes, as also in the treatment of the cloth after it is woven, to fit it for the market. Long wool is the produce of a peculiar variety of sheep, and varies in the length of its fibres from three to eight inches. Such wool is not carded like cotton, but combed like flax by hand or appropriate machinery. Short wool is seldom longer than three or four inches; it is susceptible of carding and felting, by which processes the filaments become first convoluted, and then densely matted together. The shorter sorts of combing wool are used principally for hosiery, though of late years the finer kinds have been extensively worked up into Merino and Mousseline-de-Laine fabrics. The longer wools of the Leicester breed are manufactured into hard yarns for worsted pieces, such as waistcoats, carpets, bombazines, poplins, crapes, &c."-Dr. URE. Sources of Supply Australia, Peru, Cape, Germany, Spain, Russia, Turkey, South America, &c. The imports are estimated at about 150,000,000 lb.

WORSTED, a thread spun of wool that has been combed, and which in the spinning is twisted harder than ordinarily. Worsted has obtained its name from Worstead, a market town in Norfolk, where the manufacture of this article was first introduced.

of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The most valuYEMEN, Country Arabia Felix, on the shores able products of this region consist of aromatic plants, which grow upon the sides of the hills. The grains chiefly raised are barley, millet, and d'hourra. The coffee of Yemen has a superior flavour. The balm of Mecca, and the tree bearing incense, are also the products of this region. The country is divided into sepa rate portions by mountains intersecting fertile valleys, and the inhabitants thus parted naturally form themselves into little independent states. Of tracts thus separated there are seventy-four, one of which, Azia, is celebrated valley of Nejran, is famous for the beauty of for the bravery of its people, and another, the its position. This fertile region, lying between inaccessible mountains, is watered by numerous streams, and is celebrated for the culture of dates and raisins, that meet with a ready sale all throughout Yemen. The principal coffee mart is Reit-el-Fakih, and the chief trading port is Mecca.

Ꮓ

Zealand, New, a British colony in the South Pacific, consisting of three islands, called respectively the North Island, the Middle Island, and the South, or Stewart's Island: the last-named is of comparatively insignificant size, and for purposes of government is annexed to Southland. The group stretches from Lat. 34° 15′ to 47° 30' S., and lies between Long. 166° and 179° E. Area, about 122,000 square miles. Pop. 226,618. Provinces. Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, Hawke's Bay, Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury with Westland, Otago, Southland. Harbours. The best of the North Island are in the northern district between North Cape and Cape Colville, in which are the ports of Mongonni, Wangarei, Auckland, and the Bay of Islands. South of Cape Colville on the east side, for the space of 200 miles there are only two safe anchorages, Mercury Bay and Tauranga, the former of which does not admit large vessels. For a distance of 400 miles on the east coast there is no safe harbour except the one at Wellington, at the south end of the island. On the west coast the principal harbours are Manukua, Kaipara, and Hokianga, which are spacious and secure, but obstructed by sandbars at the entrances. At the northern extremity of the Middle Island are many extensive sounds and harbours with deep water,