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196 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [MARCH 27, 1885, with trailing vines, and square mud chimnies; and anon, as we rose higher, quaint little thatched cottages, perched under the sheltering hillside, inhabited by peasants, whose faces called Murillo to mind. Still ascending, after a ride of about two hours, we reached the Peak, variously estimated at from 4,000 to 4,500 feet above sea level. We halted at the little road side ion here, which contains a spacious fire-place ; for at this altitude it is often very cold and foggy, and visitors are glad to be able to make a cup of tea and dry them selves. We were able here to get some wine, and water, the latter of which we preferred. Unfortunately, the weather now changed, and we saw, with consternation, clouds of mist drifting over the hills around us, and at times totally obscuring the view. How ever, after a short halt, we pressed forward, and cantering over a tolerably level moorland, commenced descending the mountain side by the steep zigzag paved road. The mist somewhat limited our view, but between the clouds we had peeps of the beautiful wooded ravines, the moun tain peaks, and serrated ridges, rendered ever and anon brilliantly golden by the gleams of the fitful sun, the shadows a soft ethereal blue. Dashing from rock to rock were miniature cascades, leaping o’er moss-grown boulders. Soon we reached a level mountain path bordered by ferns of various classes; wild geraniums, hoary lichens, and clusters of yellow gorse brightening the mass of green. My 12 by 10 camera accompanied me on this excursion, and a great nuisance I found it. Up the hills 1 was obliged to carry it in front of me on the saddle, and on the level it was impossible to trot in comfort. Being able to secure some permanent momento of one’s travels affords great pleasure in a fte years, but the‘necessary impedimenta is apt at the time to detract from one’s freedom of move ment. With many regrets at the shortness of our stay at lovely Madeira, we went on board the yacht at seven o’clock, and at eight were steaming out of the Bay of Funchal, our band playing, and the passengers watching, somewhat sadly, the fast disappearing lights of the little town. We all thoroughly enjoyed our two days’ stay, all too short, at Madeira. There are two photographers in Madeira, at Funchal, both of whom display very good landscape work; but the portraiture is decidedly inferior. A good English por traitist would probably do a very fair business, if he were also a competent landscape man. Small as the island is, it abounds in beautiful views, and an immense collection of profitable negatives might be secured. The resident English population and visitors rather decrease, owing to the dictum of the medical world, and rival claims of new and more fashionable watering-places; still a pushing man could, at any rate, make a comfortable living in this very enjoyable place. The Cape mail, and other large steamers, which call at Madeira, create a demand for views. At nine o’clock in the evening of February Sth, Fun chal was out of sight, and we were bound for Barbadoes and the Islands of the Caribbean Sea. BLISTERS ON SILVER P BINTS. BY W. M. ASHMAN. What causes blisters in albumenized silver prints is a question of frequent occurrence. Societies’ question-boxes, too, occasionally contain simi lar queries for information, and after much discussion, in which ancient ideas are generally revived, and modern ones aired, the subject invariably drops pretty much in the same position as where it was picked up. An object has been achieved, however, for knowledge acquired by the querist is put in practice for awhile with beneficial results ; though upon the cessation of the evil complained of, it re ceives, as a rule, very little further consideration, until questions upon the subject are again circulating. It is curious to note how regularly these complaints are made ; and to my way of thinking this periodical outcry proves in a large measure that the phenomenon is influ enced by excessive changes of temperature. At the pre sent season, it is by no means unusual for the thermometer to register during the night freezing point, or thereabouts; and this cannot fail to do other than exert some influence on the image film, such as the thin and insoluble albumen coating in the printed state represents. If it were only practicable, or only possible to obtain the same degree of purity in the whites and resisting power between the two surfaces by supplementing an albumen substratum for the present starch or gelatine method now employed, we might be sure that blisters would once for all depart, since a layer of albumen will not, under ordinary circumstances, adhere with equal tenacity to a surface which, by the very nature of its preparation, cannot be considered even, as it would to a surface having a nearer approach to perfection, such as a ^substratum of a similar substance would present. Doubtless, if it were only possible to test the power of adhesiveness and expansion existing between any one por tion of the prepared paper and the coating thereof, we should be in a better position to define the incipient cause of blisters; since such a method is not practicable, it becomes desirable to search in another direction for the probable germs of the evil. As a general rule, the dealer becomes the greatest sufferer ; he is the recipient of all the wrath that can he instilled into a letter, the length of which alone would show that the writer possessed no sympathy for the reader. The dealer in turn improves the occasion by retaliating upon the albumenizer or sensitizer, as the case may be, who, with hackneyed excuses, allows the matter to rest, until he shall have communicated with the mill—result, no answer. Much of the annoyance is caused by insufficient knowledge on the part of the user, while his lack of experience might easily be supplemented, if producers would each agree to give explicit instruction for the treatment of their papers, in so far as past experience has enabled them to do. Problems will doubtless continue to present themselves for solution, such for instance, as one or more portions of the same ream, printed and otherwise manipulated in different localities, giving trouble when the remaining portions, in the hands of other manipulaters, show complete immunity from the defect complained of. Why this is thus, forms the debatable ground for argument, which up to the present has never been wholly cleared of doubts. We might elucidate a clearer conception of the cause by staining a sheet of albumenized (Rive) paper with a dilute solution of iodine, and examine the same under a microscope before and after removal of the albumen. Those portions not exhibiting the well-known iodide of starch colour would have failed to have established perfect adhesion between the two layers. Saxe paper, not being sized with starch like the fore going, would require a slightly different treatment, such, for instance, as a wash of potassium bichromate over the albumen surface, and after exposure to light, a removal of the albumen film, followed by a subsequent microscopical examination. The effect of extreme heat upon a print is not so marked as might be expected, for the image once obtained on albumen, is not easily removed in boiling water ; notwith standing that the sizing of the paper is abstracted, the albumen remains undisturbed. If we go to the other ex treme, and allow the temperature of the washing waters to fall below 358 F., it is only with the greatest care such prints can be afterwards handled. Now it is customary with some printers to give a final wash in hot water, and there is no objection to this proceeding, provided that the solutions have been kept at a high temperature all through