is liable to be smashed by striking the bottom of the bottle. The
faculty possessed by the Japanese brush of retaining its point
renders it also available for use as a pen, and it is often so
employed.

[Side note: _Inks_]

In drawing for reproduction, the best ink is that which is blackest
and least shiny. Until a few years ago it was the custom of penmen
to grind their India ink themselves; but, besides the difficulty of
always ensuring the proper consistency, it was a cumbersome method,
and is now little resorted to, especially as numerous excellent
prepared inks are ready to hand. The better known of these prepared
inks are, "Higgins' American" (general and waterproof), Bourgeois'
"Encre de Chine Liquide," "Carter's," "Winsor & Newton's," and
"Rowney's." Higgins' and Carter's have the extrinsic advantages
of being put up in bottles which do not tip over on the slightest
provocation, and of being furnished with stoppers which can be
handled without smearing the fingers. Otherwise, they cannot be
said to possess superiority over the others, certainly not over
the "Encre de Chine Liquide." Should the student have occasion
to draw over salt-prints he will find it wise to use waterproof
ink, as the bleaching acid which is used to fade the photographic
image may otherwise cause the ink to run.

[Side note: _Papers_]

Bristol-board is probably the most popular of all surfaces for
pen drawing. It is certainly that most approved by the process
engraver, whose point of view in such a matter, though a purely