Note 56 — CHAP. XXX.
Reading edition
The trade in snow is farmed by the Aritzese, it being, like that in salt and tobacco, a royal monopoly, leased for terms of years at a considerable rent. Upwards of 9000 cantars (about 375 tons) are brought down every year from the mountains of Fundada Cungiata and Genargentu, and carried on horseback to all parts of the island. The labour, fatigue, and difficulty attending the conveyance of the snow from those great altitudes are severe; as in the paths where there is no footing for a horse, the men are obliged to carry the burden on their shoulders; and the quantity they can bear is a matter of boast and rivalry among them.
It has been observed in a former chapter that none of the Sardinian mountains rise to what would be the level of perpetual frost. The snow trade must therefore be supplied from deep hollows in the mountains, serving as natural ice-houses, in which it is lodged during the summer.
We have an account of a forest in Scotland held of the Crown by the tenure of the delivery of a snow-ball on any day of the year on which it may be demanded; and it is said that there is no danger of forfeiture for default of the quit-rent, the chasms of Benewish holding snow, in the form of a glacier, throughout the year.—Pennant's Tour in Scotland, i. 185.