THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 123 



and serraHcs, the three commonest European kinds, yiehled, up to a 

 recent period, a very considerable rental to the owners of tidal rocl^s 

 on the bleakest and most barren islands of the north of Scotland, and 

 on all similar rocky shores on the English and Irish coasts. A single 

 proprietor (Lord Macdonald) is said to have derived £10,000 per an- 

 num, for several successive years, from the rent of his kelp shores ; 

 and the collecting and preparation of the JceljJ afforded a profitable 

 employment to many thousands of the inhabitants of Orkney, Shet- 

 land, and the Hebrides. 



During the last European war^ when England was shut out from 

 the markets from which a supply of soda was previously obtained, 

 almost the whole of the alkali used by soap-boilers was derived from 

 the Ji-eljj, or sea-weed ashes, collected in Scotland. The quantity an- 

 nuallv made in favorable years, between 1790 and 1800, amounted, on 

 the authority of Dr. Barry,* to 3,000 tons, which then fetched from 

 £8 to £10 sterling per ton; but, at a later period of the war, rose 

 from £18 to £20. "it is also stated by the same author, that within 

 the 80 years, from 1720 to 1800, which succeeded the first introduc- 

 tion of the kelp trade, the enormous sum of £595,000 was realized by 

 the proprietors of kelp shores and their tenants and laborers. 



Yet, so great was the prejudice of the islanders against this lucra- 

 tive trade, when first proposed to them, "and," to quote Dr. Gre- 

 ville, "so violent and unanimous was the resistance, that officers of 

 justice were found necessary to protect the individuals employed in 

 the work. Several trials were the consequences of these outrages. 

 It was gravely pleaded in a court of law, 'that the suffocating smoke 

 that issued from the kelp kilns would sicken or kill every species of 

 fish on the coast, or drive them into the ocean fir beyond the reach of 

 the fishermen ; blast the corn and grass on their farms ; introduce 

 diseases of various kinds; and smite with barrenness their sheep^ 

 horses, and cattle, and even their own families.' " We smile at the 

 ignorant bigotry of these poor people ; but have we never heard as 

 great misfortunes predicted of almost every new improvement of the 

 age we live in, and that not by unlettered peasantry, but by persons 

 calling themselves wise, learned, and refined? — as sad stories have 

 been told against temperance, free trade, or even against the exhibi- 

 tion in the Crystal Palace. 



The Orkney islanders were not long in finding the golden harvest 

 which had thus, in the first instance, been forced upon them, and, 

 within a few years, "Prosperity to the kelp trade !" was given as the 

 leading toast on all their festive occasions. This state of prosperity 

 lasted until the general peace, when the foreign markets being thrown 

 open, harilla came into competition with the home produce. The 

 manufacture of kelp gradually declined as the price fell, and now it 

 has nearly ceased altogether ; for, besides the competition with barilla, 

 the modern process by wliich soda is readily procured from rock-salt, 

 has brought another rival into the field, and one against which it 

 seems in vain to contend. 



f History of the Orkney Islands, p. 383, (as quoted by Greville; see Alg. Brit. Introd., 

 p. xxi, et seq.) 



