KELP. 93 



serratus, digitatus, nodosus, and vesiculosus, which are the 

 hardest of the tribe; nodosus being the most thick and coria- 

 ceous of the Fuci, is most preferred, and next vesiculosus, 

 which is very abundant. The kelp harvest takes place in 

 June, July, and August. The drift-weed, which is thrown 

 on shore, is sometimes used, but never, if iujured, as in 

 that state it contains but little salt. The Fuci are cut with a 

 sickle at low water from the rocks upon which they grow, 

 and are brought to the shore by a very simple and ingenious 

 process. A rope of heath or birch is laid beyond them, and 

 the ends being carried up above high-water mark, the whole 

 floats as the tide rises; and thus by shortening the rope, the 

 Fucus is compelled to settle above the wash of the sea, when 

 it is conveyed to dry land on horseback. The more quickly 

 it is dried the better is the produce. It is burnt in kilns, or 

 merely in holes excavated in the earth, or surrouuded with 

 stones. In the Orkneys the holes of earth are preferred. 

 When I tell you that 24 tons of sea-weed only produce one 

 ton of kelp, you will easily understand how the cutting, land- 

 ing, carrying, drying, stacking, and burning the weed are 

 the source of employment to so many poor people; but, since 

 the admission of foreign barilla this manufacture has nearly 

 died away, and a numerous class of poor and industrious per- 

 sons have thus been thrown out of employ.* 



Do they cut the same plants annually] 



MRS. c. 



No; only every second or third year. But, independent 

 of their use for kelp, the different species of Fuci are of the 

 greatest utility. Fucus vesiculosus is frequently used in the 

 West Highlands and islands of Scotland, as food for cattle, 

 who regularly come down to the sea-shore, at the receding of 

 the tide, to seek for itf ; and even the deer have been known 



* M'Culloch's Highlands, and Brande's Chemistry. 



t Cattle are also very fond of Fucus canaliculatus, and never fail 

 to browse upon it in winter, as soon as the tide leaves it within their 

 reach. 



