s only
that are favoured with the most trituration, the commoner sorts being
more summarily dismissed. At the time of our visit, a pair of new
stones were in course of erection, which of themselves will turn off a
ton of chocolate per day.

The process, so far, is that employed for all kinds of cocoa and
chocolate, the nuts, as before stated, being the basis of all: the
variety depends on subsequent admixture, the best kinds being, of
course, the purest and most delicately flavoured. Up to this point, we
have the cocoa in its native condition, merely altered in form; but
now it has come to the stage of sophistication.

A given portion of the cocoa liquid is poured into a pan, and weighed
with other ingredients, which consist, in the main, of arrow-root,
sago, and refined sugar--the latter reduced to an impalpable
powder--besides the flavouring substances. The quality depends
entirely on the proportions of these ingredients, and on their
unexceptionable character. The unpractised eye may not detect any
difference between a cake of genuine chocolate, and another two-thirds
composed of red earth and roasted beans. We have seen documentary
evidence laid before the Board of Excise, shewing that a certain
manufacturer of cocoa used every week a ton of a species of umber for
purposes of adulteration; and recent investigations have shewn, that
such practices are only too frequent. No wonder that muddy and
insoluble grounds are found at the bottom of breakfast-cups! No one
pretends that manufactured chocolate or cocoa is unmixed; but it is a
satisfaction to know, that the admixture is not only of good quality,
but nutritious.

The necessary quantities having been weighed and duly stirred together
with a large wooden spoon, are poured into a mould nearly three feet
in length, about nine inches wide, and from three to four inches deep;
and in from four to five hours the mass is sufficiently solid to bear
removal, when it is turned out as a large cake or block, which might
very well pass for a huge sun-baked brick from Nineveh. In this way
any number of cakes may be produced, those made on one day being
finally worked up on the next, by which time they have become somewhat
more hardened.

In this final process, the cakes are laid one at a time in what
resembles a chaff-cutting machine, except, instead of the ordinary
broad knife wielded by grooms, that a wheel, armed with four sharp
blades, whirls round at the open end. The b