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212 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [April 3, 1885. with it. I have not tested it against Beach’s potash deve loper, nor have 1 yet been able to try it in landscape work, but for photo-micrography it is admirable. The exposure appears shortened by fully one-third, and negatives abounding in detail, strength, and density are easily ob tained. The colour’ of the negatives is not the nice black- and-white given by potash, but is of a strong olive brown, and very non-actinic. Owing to this fact, care must be taken not to push the development too far, or unduly dense negatives will result. I do not wish to praise this developer as the “ best,’’ seeing how many good developers are already before the public, all of which give good results when used with intelligence; but I think the ferrocyanide developer has advantages in cleanliness and freedom from green fog, as compared with ordinary pyro and ammonia, and is more powerful, requiring much less exposure of the plate. During the cold weather of this winter I have found it work exceedingly well, and uniformly bring out brilliant and plucky images. One word of warning : there are some makes of pla'es that will not stand this developer without fogging, unless bromide be used. The same may be said of plates that have received an excessive exposure. When 1 first tried the developer I got fogged images on several negatives in succession, and felt inclined to blame the plates, but for the fact that on one or two from the same box I got negatives of exceptional brilliancy. These, I afterwards discovered, had received the correct exposure, while the others were over-exposed and could not have been saved without the use of bromide. After this I found it best with every plate to start with two drops of a ten-grain per ounce solution of bromide of potassium, increasing the dose to six or eight drops if necessary. Using the bromide I found I could count on every plate turning out a success with a much shorter exposure than I had been accustomed to give—fully one-third less, and in some cases perhaps one half—which is a decided advantage when working with artificial light. AT CINTRA WITH A CAMERA. BY H. C. GARLAND. “ Lo! Cintra’s glorious Eden intervenes, In variegated maze of mount and glen.”—Byron. A PEN-ASD-ISK sketch may not be an inappropriate accom paniment to the photographs of Cintra’s principal features, the Pena and Moorish Castles. Starting from Lisbon at eight o’clock in the morning in a carriage whose horses, though merely fed on straw, and very little of this, go like the wind, we arrived at our destination about ten, having had two stoppages on the road, the whole distance being fifteen miles. On the road, the. feature, that forced itself on us most palpably was the dust. No such thing is known on this road as a water-cart or a sweeping-machine, all that are possessed in the neighbourhood being occupied in the city of Lisbon during the nights. The change of air is particularly noticeable as you near Cintra; it is purer and considerably colder—in fact, it is as cold, if not colder, than any part in the north of Portu gal. After our two hours’ drive on such a road as I have described, it may easily be imagined that white clothes, black faces, dry throats, and ravenous hunger, were circumstances requiring urgent attention, which, in fact, they received at one of the roost English hotels I have met with in my continental experiences. It is needless to say that being true Engl’s’men, and true Collares wine being obtainable at a fabulously low price, we paid special atten tion to the dry throats. To find this world-renowned spot in the zenith of its beauty, it should bej visited in the spring. Then the foliage, standing out bright and clear against the deep blue sky, here and there the gray stones of ancient castles and cottages peeping soberly, while the more modern white palacete stands out with its startling red tiles, the whole surmounted by the Pena and Moorish A GATEWAY AT THE PEXA PALACE. castles, a thousand shades of wonderfully contrasting colour co-operate to make a harmonious whole—a picture only imaginable when it is present to the eyes. I say this advisedly, for each time I visit it I am equally struck by this, the most enchanting resort, apart from the attrac tions society offers, it has ever been my fortune to visit. “ The Pena Palace,” was built by the king D. Manoel on the rock which he so often ascended to see if he could descry the returning fleet of Vasco da Gama, and from which, in fact, he was the first to discover it. When the monastery was secularized and sold, it became the property of a private gentleman, from whom it was purchased in a ruinous state by his Majesty D. Fernando, who has changed it into a fairy-like palace. The cloisters and chapel exist nearly in the same state as in the time of the monks, so that the building may be said to be a combination of palace, castle, and convent. We hire donkeys (a special feature of a trip to Cintra) to lift us to the Pena Castle on the top of the hill. Several times during the ascent they reverently bend the knee in adoration of the seme before them, and necessarily their riders follow suit a little in advance, though on one occasion, at a specially steep point, ny companion, Mr. Harold Goodacre, who at the time had charge of the camera, slid gracefully off what the natives innocently believe to be a saddle, and sat ungracefully on about the most stony and uncomfortable bit of road we had hitherto traversed. The camera and other photographic paraphernalia accompanied him, and I, being considerably more agitated by a possi”