th great rapidity. One part of
acid to seven of water is sufficient; and the biting is accomplished, on
the average, in from one to five minutes, from the faintest distance to
the strongest foreground.

Free, artistic etchings are very rarely executed on steel, which is more
particularly used in other kinds of engraving.

C. VARIOUS OTHER PROCESSES.

82. =Soft Ground Etching.=--There is a kind of etching known as
_soft-ground etching_, and but little practised at present, which was
successfully cultivated about thirty years ago by Louis Marvy and
Masson. The engravers of the last century used to call it _gravure en
maniere de crayon_.[19]

[Illustration: Plate VI.]

Take a ball of common etching-ground, and melt it in the water-bath in a
small vessel, adding to it, in winter, an equal volume, and in summer
only one-third of the same volume, of tallow. Let the mixture cool, form
it into a ball, and wrap it up in a piece of very fine silk. Ground your
plate in the usual way, and smoke lightly. On this soft ground fix a
piece of very thin paper having a grain, and on the paper thus attached
to the plate, execute your design with a lead-pencil. Wherever the
pencil passes, the varnish sticks to the paper in proportion to the
pressure of the hand; and, on carefully removing the sheet, it takes up
the varnish that adheres to it. Bite the plate, and the result will be a
facsimile of the design executed on the paper. (See Pl. VI.)

If the proofs are too soft, or wanting in decision, the plate may
be worked over with the needle, by regrounding, and then rebiting it.
The first state can thus be elaborated like an ordinary etching, and the
necessary precision can be given to it whenever the idea to be expressed
is vaguely or insufficiently rendered; or the same end may be reached by
the dry point. In either case, however, all the retouches must be
executed by irregular stippling, so that they may harmonize with the
result of the first biting. Otherwise there will be a lack of
homogeneity in the appearance of etchings of this sort, in which the
grain of the paper plays an important part. Smooth paper gives no result
whatever. The paper used may have a coarse grain or a fine grain, at the
pleasure of the etcher, or papers of different grain may be used in the
same design. This style of etching requires great care in handling the
plate, on account of the tenderness of the ground. In drawing, a
_hand-rest_ must be used, so tha