136 SEA-WEEDS. 



eat this sea-weed before breakfast, because of 

 its properties in cleansing the blood : and wisely 

 do they thus adopt a plant containing the iodine, 

 that powerful remedy in scorbutic affections. In 

 Iceland, on the coasts of which island it is strewn 

 in profusion, it is used largely as food for cattle, and 

 also much eaten by the people; and indeed this 

 and a few other sea-weeds were, in earlier times 

 (particularly before the introduction of the potato,) 

 almost the only vegetable food which the Ice- 

 landers could procure. These marine plants were 

 eaten either fresh or dried, and were certainly a 

 nutritious food, though perhaps palatable only to 

 those long used to them. The sea-weeds were at 

 that time an article of their inland trade ; but we 

 must rejoice with them, that they have now not 

 only the potato, but the different varieties of cab- 

 bage, even the cauliflower, and several kinds of 

 turnip, growing in their gardens ; and though not 

 so luxuriant as in our more genial climate, yet 

 they add to the few vegetable luxuries which the 

 Icelanders can enjoy, and render the dulse a less 

 necessary article of diet. The dulse in that island 

 is generally cooked; or, if eaten uncooked, it is 

 prepared for their meal by long drying in the sun. 

 Previously to this, it is usually washed thoroughly 

 from all remains of the sea- water ; and during the 

 process of drying, a fine white powder, of a 

 sweetish taste, accumulates upon it. The plant is 

 then packed in casks, and preserved to be eaten 

 with fish and butter ; or it is cooked by boiling it 

 in milk, mixed with rye flour. The Kamschatdales 

 boil this sea-weed, and procure from it a pleasant 

 fermented drink. 



This plant, which is the Dulse of the Scotch, 



