80 The Mountaineer 
Indians were rejoiced at this evidence of favor from the Great Spirit and espe- 
cially as they found “wapatoes” sprouting from the branches of those trees. 
The Eastern Indians were not experts with canoes as the Lake Indians 
were. They never suspected there was a storehouse of food so far from the 
shallow water of the shore. Their hunger increased and they had to give up 
their fighting. They went back over the mountains to their old homes. 
As the years rolled on, the Lake Indians pointed their children’s attention 
to the sunken forest as evidence of the kindness of Saghalie Tyee to their fore- 
fathers in the long ago. 
ALASKA KELP BEDS 
The following facts were condensed from notes taken at an illustrated lecture 
given before the Mountaineers by George E. Rigg, assistant professor of botany, 
University of Washington. 
The United States Bureau of Soils began in 1911 to investigate Pacific 
Coast kelps as a source of potash fertilizer. This was done under authority 
given them by the United States Congress. This authority was given by Con- 
gress because Germany had put some limitations on the export of potash from 
the Stassfurt deposits in that country. Several sources of potash were investi- 
gated in different portions of the United States, but the kelps of the Pacific 
Coast of the United States, including Alaska, have been found to be the most 
available source of potash, needed in this country for fertilizers and for other 
purposes. It has been clearly demonstrated now that we have an abundant 
supply of kelps and that the potash content of these kelps is from 20 to 40% 
of their dry weight, their dry weight being about 10% of their green weight. 
It is also known that there is a good market for this potash. Some details of 
the methods of harvesting the kelp and preparing it for use as fertilizer remain 
to be worked out. The largest supply of kelp is on the coast of Alaska, with 
California second and the Puget Sound region third. The kelp on the California 
coast is mainly Macrocystis, that in Puget Sound is mainly Nerocystis, and that 
on the Alaska coast is Nerocystis and Alaria, the former predominating in 
southern Alaska and the latter in western Alaska. 
Potash fertilizer from kelp can probably be used advantageously, in con- 
nection with nitrogenous and phosphate fertilizer obtained from fish, to make 
a balanced fertilizer. The kelp beds are all owned by the states or territories 
on which they border. California is the only state that has a law covering the 
cutting of kelp. Kelp is actually being produced and scld as fertilizer in Cali- 
fornia and preparations for its production and sale are being made on Puget 
Sound and in Alaska. 
