along, it presses the lead-pencil dust out of the
lines of the tracing on to the etching-ground, and
all so perfectly, that, upon the. removal of the
glass paper, the eye of Pickpeck beholds every
line ot the tracing shining like threads of silver
upon the black japanned-looking etching-ground.

Now the valorous Pickpeck can
commence his etching; that is to say, he, with
his etching-graver, begins to perforate the
etching-ground with divers and innumerable
dots, dug down into the steel, along the
transferred lines of silvery pencil-dust, representing
in outline the figure-head of the profound
Bunglebutt. Pickpeck arranges his dots
accordingly along the lines aforesaid, just as his
judgment conceives they will best carry out, in
an artistic manner, this much-desired representation.
The etching completed, the bright dots
dug into the steel — bright because surrounded
and relieved by the black etching-ground — now
blaze away until the etching seems to represent
a kind of starry firmament turned upside down,
and composed of countless illumination-lamps
on a small scale.

The etching completed, Pickpeck has nothing
to do but to prepare himself, and the steel plate,
for the "biting-in;" a process whereby a certain
acid, called nitric, antagonistic to steel in all its
notions, will do, in a few minutes, what even an
engraver could not accomplish so well, were he
to labour no end of days. But, before biting-in,
the steel plate must be "walled," and then
"stopped out."

For the purpose of walling the plate Pickpeck
gets a small pan of lukewarm water, into
which he puts the wall-wax, or bordering-wax,
as it is variously called; the same being a
compound of common pitch and beeswax, in equal
proportions. When this wall-wax is sufficiently
softened by the warmth of the water, Pickpeck,
upon his table, rolls it out, until it looks like an
extra-long piece of stick-liquorice, but not quite
so big in its circumference; then with the thumb
and the first finger of both hands he presses
the round stick of wall-wax to a flat, about
the eighth of an inch in thickness by one inch in
breadth. The next thing to be done is to place
this flat strip of wall-wax on its side edge, round
the entire etching; where it somewhat resembles
a little great wall of China, made of hardbake,
but without the almonds. The edge of the
wall-wax resting on the steel plate, being
securely pressed down, so as to cause it to adhere
firmly to the plate, and not allow the acid to
escape beneath the wall, the remainder of the
plate — between the wall and the etching—
although it is already covered with the etching-
ground, is nevertheless now covered over with,
a coating of Brunswick black, fresh from the
bottle, and laid on with a camel-hair brush;
the Brunswick black being carried round the
base of this little great wall of China, with every
possible care, the more effectually by such
attentive stopping-out, to keep the acid within
bounds, and thereby prevent "foul biting" — a
kind of accident most repugnant to the soul of
Pickpeck. On the left side of the steel plate,
while erecting the wall, and while the wax is
still warm and pliable, Pickpeck, by a dexterous
action of his fingers, presses out a spout to
allow of the acid being poured off the plate with
increased facility.

At length the stopping-out being perfectly
dry, with a small-spouted jug half full of
malignant-smelling acid grasped in his left hand,
Pickpeck looks one moment down upon the
bright shining dots of his etching; the next
moment the deed is done; the acid is poured
on to the etching — confined within the
limits of the little great wall of China. The
etching-ground and the Brunswick black being
both impervious to all acidical attacks, the acid
has nothing to do but to tumble headforemost
into the dots, dug through the etching-ground
into the steel below. The acid no sooner
tumbles into the dots, than they almost
immediately lose their brightness: just as though
the acid, being so pugnaciously inclined
towards steel, had suddenly given every individual
bright dot a black eye. Anyhow, the acid
is fighting for its life in these dug-out dot holes;
the acid is tearing off minute particles of steel,
and throwing them up out of the dot holes in
such multitudes as to cause a brownish cloud
to be seen floating about the little lake, the
pungent odour from which has already begun to
tickle the nose of Pickpeck. But the time has
now come for Pickpeck to interfere. Swiftly he
pours off the acid from within the little great
wall of China, rapidly supplying the place of
the acid with pure water; which operation he
repeats again and again, so as to wash
thoroughly the dots that have been so much
be-laboured by the violent conduct of the acid.
Upon pouring off the water and drying up the
few bubbles that have remained fondly hanging
about the etching, Pickpeck comes to
the conclusion, on a close examination, that
the biting is sufficient. Removing, therefore,
the wall, and washing off the etching-ground and
the Brunswick black with turpentine, the steel
plate once again appears silvery white: while the
dots, owing to the vigorous performance of the
acid, appear jet black; whereby the mighty
Bunglebutt looks up at Pickpeck in brilliant outline.

All things, such as acid, Brunswick black,
wall-wax, and other "biting traps" being
carefully put away, Pickpeck sits down to begin
engraving in earnest. First, then, he proceeds
—by digging the point of his stipple-graver
down into the steel plate, and thence chipping
out a minute particle of that metal — to lay a
tint of tiny dots all over the expressive face of
Bunglebutt; sometimes placing the dots close
together, thereby to render the finer markings
of the features; sometimes placing the dots
wider apart, as various muscles swell out and
give the varied rotundities of Bunglebutt's
countenance. When one tint of dots has been
laid down all over the great man's face,
Pickpeck, by means of a powerful magnifying-glass,
is enabled to place a second dot close to the
side of the first dot — Siamese-twins fashion;
thus he proceeds upon his way, putting a
dot here, and a dot there, and a dot wherever
his artistic judgment tells him a dot should be