52 J. D. Marswatu on the Statistics and 
ported to Scotland in a vessel which pays an annual visit to the island ; and as it would 
be very inconvenient to the islanders to bring their kelp to Church bay, just at the 
time when the vessel would be anchored there, Mr. Gage has kindly fitted up a small 
store-house, where the kelp is allowed to remain till the time of its exportation. 
In Rathlin all the larger fuci are indiscriminately used in the manufacture of kelp; 
but the fucus nodosus, or bladder-wrack, and the fucus serratus, are the species most 
employed. Besides these, they use the chorda filum, or long tangle which they call rrog ; 
this, and the /aminaria digitata, as well as the other species, are furnished in great abun- 
dance round all the shores, and many a kelp-kiln bears testimony to their profusion. 
At low water the women and children walk out on the ledges of the rocks, and 
with old knives or reaping hooks, cut off the sea-weed, which is then borne to the 
shore, and spread out before the sun to dry: in the evening it is made into little 
heaps or hillocks, and in the morning again shaken out, just in the manner in which 
they make hay. This process is continued till the weeds are dry enough to be burnt. 
An excavation of about five feet long, two or three broad, and two deep, is then made 
in the ground, and lined with large stones; and in this, which is called the kelp-kiln, the 
dried weeds are burned, the fire being kept up by constantly throwing them on the 
flame. During this process, the alkali, and every thing not capable of being dissipated 
by the heat, accumulate in the bottom of the kiln ; and when liquid, like molten metal, 
are stirred about with an iron rod till they form the hard bluish mass called kelp. I 
know nothing which produces a more beautiful and picturesque effect, than when saun- 
tering along the sea-shore on a calm summer’s evening, we see the numerous kelp-kilns 
sending forth their dense wreaths of smoke. The effect is more striking when the kiln 
is viewed from the sea, or from a point of land where the yellow smoke can be con- 
trasted with the dark-green of a verdant back-ground. At night, if the kiln be kept 
burning, the figures of the persons engaged in the occupation are thrown finely for- 
ward by the fire; and this, aided by the reflection from their faces, gives such an air 
of wildness to the scene, as to lead the spectator to imagine that he is witnessing a noc- 
turnal sacrifice, or the infernal cauldron of Macbeth’s witches : 
“What clouds of smoke in azure curls aspire 
From many an altar’s dark and smouldering fire ? 
What shadowy forms dim gleam upon the sight, 
Now hid in fume—now clear with sudden light? 
Do stern Crom-cruach’s priests to life return, 
And here, once more, their fires unholy burn.? 
Or Albyn’s friends their beacon lights relume, 
To guide the spoiler through the midnight gloom ? 
Or those dread sisters who, on blasted plain, 
Are wont to meet in thunder, lightning, rain; 
Their cauldron boil, and round it as they go, 
Their cursed enchantments in the hell-broth throw ? 
ee . —. _ hee 
er 
