THE USES OF SEA-WEEDS. 63 



for the good of living creatures^ and especially of man, who 

 often derived benefit from it in the use of Sea-weeds, though 

 he knew not of its existence? And has its existence and 

 the way of extracting it been discovered so late in the day 

 as 1812, to make us grateful for blessings unconsciously 

 received, and to stir us up to more dilfgent research into 

 God^s works of nature, by the rich remuneration so un- 

 expectedly bestowed ? It will give us some idea of the 

 value of the kelp and iodine manufactures, when we state 

 that from July 1845 to July 1846, it is calculated that 

 upwards of 10,000 tons of kelp were manufactured on our 

 British shores, which, on an average of 61. per ton, would 

 amount to 50,000/. 



It would be far from uninteresting to tell how the weed is 

 collected by hardy fellows, leading a kind of amphibious life, 

 every day drenched in sea-water, and not unfrequently 

 deluged with rain, constantly occupied for three months in 

 collecting and drying the weeds, and reducing them to kelp 

 in the kiln; their almost only food during all that time 

 being their hastily-prepared meals of->oatmeal porridge with 

 buttermilk, or treacle and water, follawed by a bannock 

 and a draught of water from the crystal brook ; yet on that 

 simple diet they continue healthy and hearty. 



