wet for the grapes, which love sunshine.
Then, again, in the hottest summers there are violent hail-storms, and
in half an hour he may see his promising crop beaten to the ground. It
has been well remarked that "the weather seems to have no control over
itself in Hungary."

The vine-grower's troubles do not end when the vintage is successfully
over. Tokay is a troublesome wine in respect to fermentation; it
requires three years before it can travel, and even when these critical
years are over, the wine will sometimes get "sick" in the spring--at
the identical time when the sap rises in the living plant.

The unique quality of the Tokay is due to the soil, and perhaps to some
other conditions; but not to the peculiarity of the grape, for, as a
matter of fact, they grow a variety of sorts. The cultivation of the
vine appears to be of great antiquity in this part of the world. The
introduction of the plant is attributed to the inevitable Phoenician;
but, treading on more assured historic ground, we find that King Bela
IV., in the thirteenth century, caused new kinds of grapes to be
imported from Italy, and brought about an improvement generally in the
culture of the vine.

But to return to the question of the soil. The Tokay Eperies group of
hills is one of several well-defined groups of volcanic rocks that exist
in Hungary and Transylvania. In the Tokay district the formations are
partly eruptive, partly sedimentary, but nowhere older than the Tertiary
period, say the geologists. The Hegyalia (which means "mountain-slopes"
in the Magyar tongue) forms the southern spur of the extended volcanic
region, composed of trachyte and rhyolithe, beginning at Eperies and
terminating in the conical hill of Tokay, which protrudes itself so
singularly into the Alfoeld, or plain.

But the vine-growing district does not end at Tokay; it continues on
the eastern slopes of the mountain range as far as Uihely, forming two
sides of an irregular triangle, and the total length, say from Szanto in
the west to Tokay, and from Tokay to Uihely, being about thirty-eight
miles.

As a matter of fact, Tokay, which gives its name to the wine, does not
produce the best vintage; other localities are more esteemed. Tallya,
for example, situated a few miles east of Szanto, has long been
renowned. As early as the sixteenth century the excellence of the wine
from this district was acknowledged by infallible authority. It appears
that during the sitting