THE USES OF SEA- WEEDS. , 53 



" during this season^ at half-tide or low water^ multitudes of 

 carts and horses, boats and vraicJcers, cover the beach, the 

 rocks, and the water ; and so anxious are the people to make 

 the most of their limited time, that I have often seen horses 

 swimming and carts floating, so unwilling are vraicJcers to 

 be driven from their spoil by the inexorable tide." The 

 vraicJc is used as manure either fresh from the rocks, or 

 after it has been burnt as fuel. Inglis mentions the remark- 

 able fact, of which I was before ignorant, that in these 

 islands vraick is the chief and almost the only article used 

 as fuel. Tor this purpose it is collected at other times than 

 the regular vraiching seasons, and then it consists of what 

 has been detached from the rocks by the waves, and carried 

 to the shore by the tide. At all times men, women, and 

 children, but chiefly the latter, may be seen at this employ- 

 ment. They use a rake or three-pronged pitch-fork, and a 

 wheel-barrow in which it is carried above high-water mark, 

 to be spread out and dried. It makes a hot, if not a cheerful 

 fire. Scarcely any other fuel is used in these islands : a little 

 wood, though rarely, is mixed with it; and it is only on 

 feast-days and family festivals that a coal fire is lighted in 

 the best parlour. 



Early in the morning, if a person is strolling abroad, he is 



