00 



THE SEA. 



DELESSEKIA. 



Presently we came to the Droch, where a more majestic cavern than any we had yet seen 

 appears. Up on a beach of yellow sand its immense span is reared with a secondary 

 entrance; the arch of uniting stone is thrown across with a beautiful lightness, and 



appears as if hewn with the mason's chisel. Dark domes 

 are seen within, far up in the lofty vaulted roof, and 

 pools of still, clear glassy water mirror the rude walls. 

 This is certainly a glorious cave." 



Easiest of all maritime objects to collect are the so- 

 called "sea- weeds," which the Rev. J. G. Wood rightly terms 

 a "miserable appellation," to be employed under protest. 

 They are in reality beautiful sea-plants of oft-times delicate 

 form and colour ; and even the larger and commoner 

 varieties have much of interest about them, some having 

 actual uses. One of the first to strike the eye on almost 

 any beach is the common bladder- wrack (Fucus vesiculosus) , 

 that dark olive-brown sea- weed familiar to all visitors to our 



coasts. It is distinguished by its air-vessels, which explode when trodden on or otherwise 

 roughly compressed, and which are the delight of all youngsters at the sea-side. This slimy 

 and slippery weed makes rock-walking perilous in a moderate degree, a fact which does not 

 generally stop young British maidens and their companions from slipping about over 

 its tangled masses. A larger species (Fucus serratus) sometimes grows to a length of six 

 feet. It is used as manure, and even as food for cattle; while it is excellent to pack 

 lobsters, crabs, &c., if they have to be sent inland. These and kindred alga, the generic 

 term for sea-weed, are known as Melanosperms, 

 or black-seeded, so called from the dark olive tint 

 of the seeds or spores from which they spring, and 

 with which they abound. 



The best time for the collector who would 

 reap a harvest is at spring-tides, when, Mr. Wood 

 tells us, an hour or two's careful investigation of 

 the beach will sometimes produce as good results 

 as several days' hard work with the dredge. " It 

 is better to go down to the shore about half an 

 hour or so before the lowest tide, so as to follow 

 the receding waters and to save time." The 

 naturalist or amateur collector then finds at these 

 low tides a new set of vegetation, contrasting with 

 the more delicate forms left higher on the beach, as 

 forest-trees with ferns and herbage. Huge plants, 



some of them measuring eleven feet in length, of the oar- weed (Laminaria digitata), are lying 

 about in profusion. It is known by its scientific name on account of the flat thin-fingered 

 fronds it bears. Its stem is used for handles to knives and other implements, so tough and 

 strong is it. One good stem will furnish a dozen handles, and when dry it is as hard as horn. 



LAMINARIA. 



