1869.] and their Uses. 333 



growing,* and much of this weed they send by boat for sale at 

 Galway, or some of the small towns on the south or east of Galway 

 Bay, from whence it is brought by carts, or even by the railways, 

 into the interior of the country, to be used as a fertilizer for the 

 land ; while the " sea^vrack " that may be driven in during this 

 period, they save by drying in the sun ; some to be burned into 

 kelp, while more, later in the year, will be sent away in boats to be 

 sold as manure for the late potatoes and turnip crop. 



The burning or kelp manufacture usually begins in the latter 

 end of April, but sometimes earher, if the spring has been dry 

 and hot, and is carried on until the end of September ; however 

 during a fine dry autumn they may keep the fires lighted all 

 October or even November, but this depends entirely on the 

 weather and the quantity of weed they are able to save, as in 

 Yar-Connaught, except in the Aran Islands, the drying process is 

 altogether efl'ected by atmospheric heat. 



In foiiner years there was an extensive trade in black weed 

 kelp, as the prices ranged from £15 to £20 a-ton; most of the 

 soda used in the manufacture of soap, glass, &c., being procured 

 therefrom. But the duty having been taken off salt, cheaper 

 methods were resorted to, such as that discovered by M. Lablanc, 

 for obtaining soda from common salt, through its decomposition by 

 sulphuric acid. The adaptation of M. Lablanc's celebrated process 

 rendered black weed kelp almost valueless as a source of soda, and 

 this trade, for soap-making purposes, ceased about the year 1840. 

 Its loss not only aflected the inhabitants of Yar-Connaught, but 

 also the people hving on the west coast of Scotland, particularly the 

 inhabitants of the Hebrides, whose country, as well as their mamier 

 of living, resemble those of Yar-Connaught. From the Hebrides 

 many of the inhabitants emigrated, while in Yar-Connaught the 

 people became poorer and poorer till the famine of 1846 and the 

 following years, during which visitation many of them found a 

 resting-place in their graves. 



After the great trade in the black weed succumbed, a new one 

 sprang up in red weed kelp, for obtaining the marine salts, which 

 yield iodine, bromine, &c. ; but this trade was not of much im- 

 portance until after the year 1845, since which it has become 

 annually more and more developed. It should here be mentioned 

 that to William Patterson, Esq., of Glasgow, Yar-Connaught is 



* The inhabitants of this coast have an ingenious way of saving themselves the 

 trouble of carrying the weeii they cut on the rocks, by throwing it as cut in a heap, 

 and, before the tide rises to it, tying it round with a hay or grass rope, locally 

 called a sugaun. This heap rises with t'ne tide, and can be easily towed to 

 wiiatever part of the shore they wish. This practice seems to have been in vogue 

 for at least 200 years, as it is mentioned by Roderick O'Fflahertie in his history 

 of ' Iliar, or West Connaught,' which was written in the year a.d. 1684. 



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