180 The Irish Naturalist. [August, 



other dried seaweeds. We were astonished to learn on further 

 inquiry that these were to be used for kelp. It was hard to 

 believe that they were for use in that way, because a very large 

 number of specimens were heaped one on another on stone 

 walls in such a manner that the largest proportion must have 

 remained damp for a very long time before they became dry, 

 and during the changing weather much of the valuable residual 

 product must have been lost. Close to these heaps were many 

 very fine drying-grounds for this purpose, and, instead of 

 burning as soon as the specimens were in a fit condition, they 

 were kept for months, and thereby, after much unnecessary 

 exposure, the kelp produced must have become very much 

 reduced in market value. Most of the seaweed used was the 

 stems of Laminaria digitata and proportionally small specimens 

 of the more valuable L. hyperborea. Besides there were heaps 

 of FucuSy mixed with other smaller seaweeds, which were said 

 to be put to the same purpose. This seems to be almost un- 

 necessary labour. No doubt, much more profit might be 

 reaped by the kelp-burners by following more exact methods 

 of drying and burning, as well as more restricted selection of 

 the weeds. We understood the process of burning to be waste- 

 ful, and but little adapted to its purpose. Prof. Johnson has 

 issued instructions for kelp-burning, and distributed them 

 through the Congested Districts Board for Ireland, but the 

 kelp-burners here appear to be too conservative to follow new 

 methods. 



We did not attempt a detailed study of the algal flora of 

 Roundstone, as our stay was only of a few days' duration, and 

 was principally taken up in studying the calcareous algae. 

 These algae appear to occur very generally around the coast, 

 but as yet are far from being w r ell known, since most of the 

 specimens collected up to recently have been devoid of fruit, 

 and therefore difficult to clearly determine. We learned of 

 the existence of many banks in the neighbourhood, which 

 should prove to be of great interest to examine, but for want 

 of time we had to put off their examination until some future 

 period. Much work yet remains to be done before it is 

 possible to get a clear idea of the distribution and mode of life 

 as obtained in this important group of algae. 



Trondbjem, Norway. 



