The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.
The land more or less devoted to viticulture in the department of Gironde may be divided into six categories: (1) Alluvial or palus land, (2) rich, strong soil, (3) marly calcareous land, (4) gravelous land, (5) siliceous, and (6) sablo-argillaceous land.[…]Gravelous land is the most favorable for vine culture as regards the quality of the production, and may be divided into two classes: (1) On gravelous land composed of stones or quartz, being about three feet in depth, and having a subsoil of clay and argil or alios, the best growths of Médoc and Graves are cultivated; (2) sandy, gravelous land, forming a composition of sand and stones, based on an inert sand or upon aliotic layers, is not propitious to the vine in consequence of the humidity of the subsoil.
It was to me a marvellous experience; to be here, propped up with pillows in a dimly-lighted room, the night-nurse idly dosing by the fire; the sound of the everlasting wind in my ears, howling outside […]
Some birds change colour during their winter moult.
