ill be insufficient; the planer must,
therefore, hammer them out before he goes at the other parts. As regards
the little holes in the foreground, since they are not as deep as the
lines among which they appear, you can remove them, or at least reduce
them, by means of charcoal, without injury to the deeply bitten parts.

You may follow this plan whenever you are convinced that a lowering of
tone will do no harm to your first work. In the opposite case, you must
either have recourse to the planer, or put up with the accident. If you
are not too much of a purist, you will occasionally find these _piques_
productive of a _piquant_ effect, and then you will take good care not
to touch them.

"That's a 'point' which you did not mention among the utensils! You have
ingenious ways of getting out of a scrape."

We cut out, or cut down, or dig away, whole passages, according to
necessity. I have seen the half of a plate planed off, because the
design was faulty.

64. =Acid Spots on Clothing.=--Here comes one of my friends, who is also
an etcher. I wonder what he brings us! His clothing is covered all over
with spots of the most beautiful garnet; he ought to have washed them
with volatile alkali, which neutralizes the effect of the acid. But he
does not mind it.

65. =Reducing Over-bitten Passages and Creves.=--"Oh, gentlemen, that is
not worth while speaking of! But you must see my plate. I drew a horse
from nature, which a whole swamp-ful of leeches might have disputed with
me. But I do believe it escaped the _biting_ of these animals only to
succumb to mine. Judge for yourselves!"

The fact of the matter is, that you have killed it with acid. There is
nothing left of it, but an informal mass, ten times over-bitten.
Fortunately there is no lack of black ink at the printer's! It is a
veritable Chinese shadow, and looks as if the horse had gone into
mourning for itself. However, although the carcass is lost, I hope you
may be able to save some of the members. The wounds are deep and broad;
but we can try a remedy _in extremis_: first of all, your horse will
have to stand an attack of _charcoal_; if it survives this, we shall
subject it to renewed and ferocious _bitings_. All this puzzles you.
Therefore, having treated your beast to the charcoal, and having had a
last proof taken, you place the latter before you, and re-cover your
plate with a solid coat of varnish. With a somewhat coarse point you
patch those places which