e or mixed. This in the first instance
goes through a kind of fermentation, and, like the basis of
soup at the modern hotels, forms, as it were, the stock from
which all the varieties in flavor and appearance are
produced by special treatment and flavoring. Of course the
strength and pungency of the snuff will depend a good deal
upon the richness of the tobacco originally put aside for
it. About one thousand pounds of tobacco would form an
ordinary batch of snuff. The duty on this would amount to
about L150, and this has to be paid before the tobacco is
removed from the bonded warehouse. Having got his heap of
material ready, the snuff-maker moistens it, then places it
in a warm room and covers it over with warm cloths--coddles
it, as it were, to make it comfortable, so that the cold air
cannot get to it--and the heap is then left for three or
four weeks, as the case may be, to ferment.

"In France, where, under the Imperial _regime_, snuff-making
was a Government monopoly, the tobacco was allowed to
ferment for twelve or eighteen months; and in the principal
factory (that at Strasburg) might have been seen scores of
huge bins, as large as porter vats, all piled up with
tobacco in various stages of fermentation. The tobacco,
after being fermented, if intended for that light, powdery,
brown-looking snuff called S. P., is dried a little; or if
for Prince's Mixture, Macobau, or any other kind of Rappee,
is at once thrown into what is called the mull. The mull is
a kind of large iron mortar weighing about half a ton and
lined with wood; and there is a heavy pestle which travels
round it, forming, as it were, a large pestle and mortar.

These mulls are placed in rows and shut up in separate cupboards, to
keep in the dust. The snuff-maker wanders from one to the other, and
feeds them as they require.

"When the grinding of the snuff is completed it is then
ready for flavouring, and in this consists the great art and
secret of the trade. Receipts for peculiar flavors are
handed down from father to son as most valuable heir-looms,
and these receipts are in fact a valuable property in many
instances, for so delicate is the nose of your snuff-taker
that he can detect the slightest variation in the
preparation of his favorite snuff. It is related of