54 INTRODUCTION. 



apt to suppose that the Jersey farmer and his household 

 have been astir before day-break, for the smoke is seen 

 rising from the cottages. But the fires have been burning 

 all night; — there would be no thrift in extinguishing the 

 V)'aick-^YeSj as the consumption of fuel is the manufacture 

 of manure, the burnt vraic answering better for their fields 

 under crop, than the fresh vraic, which is employed as a top- 

 dressing for their green-fields. 



We see that Sea-weeds are very valuable as maniu'e, and 

 as fuel ; are they not also employed as food ? Though not 

 so much used in this way as they once were, there are some 

 kinds that are still much eaten by the Highlanders and by 

 the Irish, and to some extent by the Scotch Lowlanders. 

 " AVhall buy dulse and tang ?" was one of the euphonious 

 cries which tickled my ears, when, from an inland part of 

 the country, I came as a young student to the University 

 of Edinburgh. It was much eaten by the Highlanders till 

 it was supplanted by that nauseous herb, tobacco ; and well 

 would it have been for both purse and person, if they had 

 continued to prefer it to a costly narcotic. Its very whole- 

 someness was one of its great recommendations; long 

 before it was known to contain iodine, and before iodine 

 itself was discovered, it was thought very efficacious as a 



