travels with amazing rapidity over the effervescent liquid. In very hot
weather I have seen the water swell up over the mid walls of the vats,
till the whole range would be one uniform surface of frothing liquid,
and on applying a light, the report has been as loud as that of a small
cannon, and the flame has leapt from vat to vat like the flitting
will-o'-the-wisp on the surface of some miasmatic marsh.

When fermentation has proceeded sufficiently, the temperature of the
vat lowers somewhat, and the water, which has been globular and convex
on the surface and at the sides, now becomes distinctly convex and
recedes a very little. This is a sign that the plant has been steeped
long enough, and that it is now time to open the vat. A pin is knocked
out from the bottom, and the pent-up liquor rushes out in a golden
yellow stream tinted with blue and green into the beating vat, which
lies parallel to, but at a lower level than the loading vat.

Of course as the vats are loaded at different hours, and the steeping
varies with circumstances, they must be ready to open also at different
intervals. There are two men specially engaged to look after the
opening. The time of loading each one is carefully noted; the time it
will take to steep is guessed at, and an hour for opening written down.
When this hour arrives, the _Gunta parree_, or time-keeper, looks at
the vat, and if it appears ready he gets the pinmen to knock out the
pin and let the steeped liquor run into the beating vat.

Where there are many vats, this goes on all night, and by the morning
the beating vats are all full of steeped liquor, and ready to be
beaten.

The beating now is mostly done by machinery; but the old style was very