I avail myself of this occasion to record, that about the date of Darwin's publication, or very soon after, the very ingenious Earl Stanhope not only thought of, but actually employed, the identical screw propeller now in use in a vessel which he had fitted up for the purpose; and in which, by his invitation, I, and several other gentlemen, accompanied him in various trips backwards and forwards between Blackfriars and Westminster bridges. The instrument was a long iron axle, {474} working on the stern port of the vessel, having at the end in the water a wheel of inclined planes, exactly like the flyer of a smoke-jack; while, inboard, the axle was turned by a crank worked by the men. The velocity attained was, I think, said to be four miles an hour. I am sorry that I am not able to specify the exact date of this experiment, but it must have been between 1802 and 1805. What Lord Stanhope said about employing steam to work his machine, I do not clearly recollect. He entered into a great many details about it, but I remember nothing distinctly but the machine itself. C. * * * * * AMONTILLADO SHERRY. (Vol. ix., pp. 222. 336.) The wines of Xérès consist of two kinds, viz. sweet and dry, each of which is again subdivided into two other varieties. Amontillado sherry, or simply Amontillado, belongs to the latter class, the other description produced from the dry wine being sherry, properly so called, that which passes in this country generally by that name. These two wines, although differing from each other in the peculiarities of colour, smell, and flavour, are produced from the same grape, and in precisely a similar manner; indeed, it frequently happens that of two or more _botas_, or large casks, filled with the same _moùt_ (wort or sweet wine), and subjected to the same manipulation, the one becomes Amontillado, and the other natural sherry. This mysterious transformation takes place ordinarily during the first, but sometimes even during the second year, and in a manner that has hitherto baffled the attempts of the most attentive observer to discover. Natural sherry has a peculiar aromatic flavour, somewhat richer than that of its brother, the Amontillado, and partakes of three different colours, viz. pale or straw, golden, and deep golden, the latter being the description denominated by us brown sherry. The Amontillado is of a straw colour only, more or less shaded according to the age it possesses. Its flavour is drier and more delicate than that of natural sherry, recalling in a slight degree the taste of nuts and almonds. This wine, beings produced by a phenomenon which takes place it is imagined during the fermentation, is naturally less abundant than the other description of sherry, and there are years in which it is produced in very small quantities, and sometimes even not at all; for the same reason it is age for age dearer also. The word "Amontillado" signifies like or similar to Montilla, _i.