1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

27Q

The Tineyavds and Wines of Madeira.

way lay in part between tbe garden-walls of pleasant-looking casas with Tines trained in corridors meeting over our beads. Between their leafy arcades we every now and then caught .Glimpses ofthe smilingfaces of young girls seated in the mirantes, or look-out seats, engaged in watching the passers-by. Tawny tinted urchins sprawled in the sun before^ the cottage doors, clad in the scanty costume common to the island, consisting o a single garment,something between a chemise and a night- crown, and which is worn by children of both sexes until they are about eight years old. We rode up to the summit of the peak of Santo Antonio, which on one side commands a perfect view of the vineyards and villages of Sao Martinho and Santo Amaro, the hills between them and the purple headlands, stretching out to sea, being cultivated principally with gram, with here and there a patch of vines, while on the lower lands, where water is procurable, sugar-canes invariably predominate. Turning round, the eye takes in a broad expanse of spreading themselves over the wide valley and stretching haU- way up the nearer mountain slopes, the summits^ of which are clothed with chestnut-trees and pines. Beyond rise up the dis tant peaks, at times varied with a few patches of scanty vege tation, at others bare and desolate-looking, their craggy sides intersected with gloomy ravines. The view comprises the Santo Antonio, Sao Eoque, and Sao Joao, together with the Funchal and Caminho do Meio districts. Bound about much of the cultivated land is piled up in terraces supported by stone walls, after the fashion prevalent in the island. Senhor SaUes's vineyard is intersected by a road,and one portion, overlooking a ravine, was affected both by phylloxera and oidium,the latter because the vines had not been sulphured in accordance with the prevailing practice. The vines already destroyed by the phylloxera had been replaced by sugar-canes. The yield,therefore, from this portion of the vineyard would show a considerable falling off,but on the other side of the road, where the vines were in a more healthy state,the crop would be far more satisfactory. Senhor Salles had recently given hi»