106 SEA-WEEDS. 



every cottage chimney." The French name of 

 these plants is varech, and in Jersey dialect it is 

 vraic, being somewhat similar to our common 

 name of wrack. In the daily gatherings from 

 the shore, the inhabitants are prohibited by their 

 island laws from collecting it between sunrise 

 and sunset, in order to allow some advantage to 

 those who reside at a distance from the coast. 

 But besides these daily gatherings from the tide, 

 there are two times of the year called the vraick- 

 ing seasons, when, at dawn of day, large parties 

 sally from every part of the island, and rest not 

 till they reach the shore. Merry parties they are, 

 for though they must labour hard, yet singing 

 gleefully to the music of the waves, they with their 

 scythes cut away from the rocks the useful weeds, 

 and filling their carts with them, sit down to their 

 humble meal of the vraicking cake, made of flour, 

 milk, and sugar, and to other articles both of 

 eating and drinking which they carry with them. 

 The carts proceed as far as the tide will admit ; 

 but boats carry the vraickers to the more distant 

 rocks ; and the stranger to the scene is often 

 amused at seeing the busy crowds covering the 

 rocks and the shore, while, when the ruthless tide 

 sets in, the carts and horses may sometimes be 

 seen floating on the waves. The two annual 

 seasons for gathering the weeds in this way are 

 limited to about ten days in March, and a similar 

 portion of the month of July; and there are 

 many families who look forward to these labours, 

 not only as furnishing fuel for their houses, and 

 manure for their lands, but as the means of pro- 

 curing a commodity for sale, by which clothing 

 and other necessaries may be purchased. 



