NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 155 



Atlantic there was constantly detaching the sand from its banks 

 and carrying it, as also the clouds of sand blown into it by every 

 breeze, down to the sea. The sea, thus perennially fed, cast up 

 the sand all along the shore. The bent now holds the sand 

 together, and already has provided enough vegetable soil by its 

 decay to permit of the growth of a sort of sward composed of 

 Viola tricolor, Anthyllis vulneraria, Erqdium cicutariurriy some coarse 

 grasses, and some of the arenaceous mosses. The consequence 

 is that the stream, even in winter, comes down uncontaminated, 

 and the sea — no longer fed as of yore — has washed the Glassagh 

 shore down to its rocky base. 



On this same Fannett coast the marine algae may be studied 

 "without much effort, as every tide washes in very perfect speci- 

 mens of many of the deep sea species ; while the rock pools are 

 brilliant with CladopJwrae, Chyloclacliae, and PohjsipJioniae. I never 

 saw anywhere such an abundance of Coclium tomentosum ; and 

 Laurencia pinnaUfida is also to be found in every pool. The 

 economic uses of the algae, decried as useless by old Virgil, is 

 well illustrated here in early summer. In May the old frond of 

 Laminaria digitata becomes constricted, and is pushed off by the 

 new frond, and the first storm drives in masses of this weed, 

 forming often a bank four or five feet in depth. The natives call 

 this, in Erse, the scie weagli, meaning the "May fleece," and 

 when it is coming in, the scene along shore is an animated one. 

 In one bay I have counted seventy carts, the horses up to the 

 girths in the sea, and men and girls round about forking up the 

 precious crop, which is then spread out above high water mark 

 and dried, and thereafter burned into kelp. About 400 tons of 

 kelp are made in this Fannett district, which has a coast line of 

 only six miles; and these 400 tons imply the gathering and 

 saving of 8,500 tons of wet seaweed. 2,000 tons more are 

 secured for manure — the farmers coming seven or eight miles 

 for it when the scie iveagh is in. 



There is another busy time when the " harvest weed " comes 

 ashore. This may arrive any time from the beginning of 

 August till the end of September, but the weed then consists 

 of the variety stenophylla of Laminaria digitata. I think this 

 variety should be elevated to the rank of a species, for, apart 

 from its structural differences, it ripens at a different season ; it 

 sheds not only its frond but also a portion of the stipes in- 



