We confess that we are much inclined to agree with the learned Eggert Olafsen's doubts as to the practicability of manufacturing a wine, to suit at least our palates, from the acrid fruit of the _Empetrum nigrum_. It is said that Boerhaave, gives a receipt for this purpose, and we have accordingly found it in his forty-second _Process of the Elementa Chemiæ_, but this relates to the general mode of producing wine from fruits; and Olafsen (p. 172. vol. i.) tried it in vain with the crowberry when in Iceland in 1753. Still a species of subacid drink, such as still prepared from this fruit by the Icelanders, may have been dignified in olden times with the name of wine; but Olafsen was certainly in error when he stated that Bishop Paul brought over to Iceland, according to tradition, a native of the Canary Isles, to teach the art. The Canary Isles were not then (A.D. 1203) known to Europe. About the year 1186 King Sverrer forbade the importation of wine into Bergen by the German traders, on account of the scenes of drunkenness and riot that ensued therefrom; and he is said to have turned his attention to the preparing of a home-made wine from the crowberry, as a substitute for the foreign liquors he had forbidden. The learned editors of the _Historic Memorials of Greenland_, in a note on the passage above quoted in Bishop Paul's _Saga_, remark, that this was probably the kind of wine which is traditionally said to have been used for the sacrament in Iceland when the true juice of the grape could not be obtained. Huidtfeldt, in his Chronicle, positively states that the Northmen in 1250 and 1290 sought and obtained permission from the Pope to use mead, "mjod" (mulsum), and other similar liquors, in the celebration of the sacrament, in consequence of the great scarcity of wine in those countries. The editors further state that "within our own times, during the disastrous war with England, it was proposed to employ wine made from bilberries for the same purpose in Iceland." The Synod of Roeskilde, according to Pontoppidan, _Annal. Eccles. Dan._ ii. 329. and iii. 538., forbids the use of any liquor but pure wine in the sacrament in the following words:-- "Pastores sunt admoniti ad communionem uti, non _musto_ aut aliis liquoribus illicitis, sed puro vino, juxta institutionem." Lastly, in Rymer's _Foedera_, vol. x. p. 762., there is a petition from the Bishop of Skalholt to the English government in 1440, stating the depressed state of the commerce of Iceland at that period, and that no _wine, beer, or indeed any liquor_ except milk and water, was to be found in the country. Such was its wretched condition, that he expresses his fear, unless supplies were received from England, divine service, the celebration of the communion, and of baptism, would soon cease.