380 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



grow, as well as the number of iodine-bearing plants, are very- 

 limited. The shores of the British Isles and of Brittany are the 

 spots most favored, owing to the presence of the Gulf Stream, 

 which serves as the carrier of the iodine and of the temperature 

 conditions necessary to the growth of the Algcz. 



By far the larger portion of the sea- weed harvest comes ashore 

 in the early spring and in the late fall. The fall harvest, together 

 with that which winter adds, is suffered in most localities to lie un- 

 touched on the beach until it has been carried out to sea again and 

 lost forever. It is only the spring crop which receives special care. 

 Thousands of women and children, and a small sprinkling of men, 

 may be seen nocking to the beach during the month of May, armed 

 with rakes and wheelbarrows, or driving low carts, whose wheels 

 are made broad enough to prevent their sinking in the sand. The 

 wet weeds are raked into piles, and carried either by barrow or 

 cart to a conveniently safe distance from the water's edge. Usu- 

 ally a sheltered nook is chosen, if near at hand, and in it is stored 

 a great mass of the weed. Here it is left to dry under the sum- 

 mer's hot sun, meanwhile exhaling odors of no dainty description. 

 There are well-recognized liberties and restrictions in regard to 

 sea-weed accorded to landlords and peasantry who dwell along 

 the shore. The landlords have most of the liberties, while the 

 peasants enjoy the restrictions. Conflicts of sea-weed rights have 

 been known to occur, in which cases the shillalah has had an im- 

 portant share in the gathering of the crop. 



When the weed is dry that is, in the latter part of July and 

 the first of August the owners of the sea-weed heaps undertake 

 to burn them into kelp. This burning is done in the crudest and 

 most wasteful manner. Shallow pits, often dug right in the 

 sand, are filled with weed and the mass ignited. Upon the first 

 charge fresh quantities of weed are thrown from time to time, the 

 whole mass burning more or less rapidly in proportion to the dry- 

 ness of the weed. There results, in the bottoms of these pits, a 

 black mass resembling iron-slag in appearance, though not in 

 hardness, which, being sprinkled with water while hot, breaks up 

 into large lumps suitable for transportation. Owing to the care- 

 lessness with which the weeds are raked up, this crude kelp-slag 

 always contains a large percentage of sand and other impurities, 

 sometimes amounting to one half the total weight of the product. 

 The improvidence of this is the more marked in view of the small 

 amount of valuable salts which even at best can be found in the 

 kelp, and the rapid ratio in which the cost of transportation 

 diminishes the profits when half of the slag is dead weight. The 

 improvidence extends equally to the burning itself. This takes 

 place in full access of air, and at a temperature so high as to vola- 

 tilize much of the iodine. Besides, all the gaseous products of the 



