TRADES OF THE ISLANDS 361 



or sleeve-buttons. Then there are guides, as Mexican 

 Joe and Joe Adargo, who know the wild goat country 

 well and who take you out with a guarantee of game. 



Perhaps the most interesting thing at the island is 

 the uses to which everything is put. At Santa Bar- 

 bara the beautiful abalone shells taken at the islands 

 are worked into electric light shades and many other 

 articles. At Anacapa and Santa Cruz I met a man 

 who collected kelp (Nereocystis), which he sent to Los 

 Angeles to a factory that employs many girls, who 

 convert the seaweed into countless articles. 



''It's funny that no one has thought about this 

 before," said the little man. "You see, it grows all 

 along the coast from San Francisco to Patagonia, and is 

 a long green and amber-hued vine. Down on the South 

 American coast and the Falkland Islands it is five 

 hundred or even one thousand feet long, and small 

 vessels can tie up to it; but up here it ranges thirty or 

 forty feet, a long stem, and this big fluted leaf, ten 

 feet or so long. 



"You know," continued the weed-collector, "all 

 great discoveries are made by accident, so some inven- 

 tive genius in walking along the sands found a twisted 

 stem of kelp several feet long. He took it home, dried 

 it, and found that he had a staff as hard as stone. He 

 made two canes of it, and after oiling them up sold 

 them to a dealer for two dollars apiece and got an 

 order for more. I am not the original genius, but I 

 am not far behind on the kelp question. I have a 

 partner up in the city, and you would hardly believe 

 it, but we have in the season thirty or more girls at 

 work making kelp curios. 



"You see this piece?" and the old man hauled the 



