42 THE OCEAN. 



together, and all the morning stars to shout for joy. 

 Yet we may, with adoring gratitude, recognise the 

 love which remembers man, and provides many natu- 

 ral objects for his appropriation ; endowing them 

 with qualities which his intelligence discovers to be 

 useful, and which alleviate the privation and toil of 

 his fallen condition. 



A substance called kelp, an impure carbonate of 

 soda, important in the manufacture of soap and of 

 glass, is the produce of these " worthless" weeds. 

 Some years ago, the coasts and islands of Scotland 

 yielded 20,000 tons of this valuable substance an- 

 nually, which was worth ten pounds sterling per 

 ton; but through the increased consumption of ba- 

 rilla, an alkali imported from Spain, it has some- 

 what diminished. The autumnal storms detach large 

 quantities of Algce (a general name applied to all 

 the sea-weeds), which are washed ashore. The 

 inhabitants of the coast, aware of their value, 

 hurry down to secure the riches thus freely pre- 

 sented, and either cast them on their fields as a va- 

 luable manure, or burn them into kelp. In Scot- 

 land, the kelp-kiln is nothing but a round pit, dug 

 in the sand or earth on the beach, and surrounded 

 by a few loose stones. In the morning a fire is 

 kindled in this pit, generally with the aid of turf 

 or peat. The fire is gradually fed with sea-weecl, 

 in such a state of dryness that it will merely burn. 

 In the course of the day, the furnace becomes 

 nearly full of melted matter, and iron rakes are 

 then drawn rapidly backward and forward through 

 the mass to compact it, or bring the whole into an 



