UTILIZATION <>F SEAWEEDS IX THE UNITED STATES. 



173 



laveb [Porphyra ladniata). 



This alga is found in abundance along the entire coast, but is not collected except 

 sparingly by Chinese, who obtain most of their supply from Asia. It was recorded 

 in 1876 by Farlow that layer was imported from China by the Chinese living in this 

 country, even by those as far east as Massachusetts, although the plant is common on 

 the Massachusetts shores. The considerable demand for Porphyra among oriental 

 people in the United States should be supplied from local sources, the algfe being 

 prepared after the Japanese method or by simple washing and drying. 



In Ireland, where it is called "sloke," laver is boiled and served with butter. 

 pepper, and vinegar as a dressing for cold meat. 



giant kelp: great bladder-weed {Nereocystis lutkeand). 



This most remarkable plant, which attains an enormous length, grows on the 

 Pacific coast from Monterey Hay northward. Swan (1893) writes as follows regard- 

 ing it in the Puget Sound region: 



The Nereocystis of tin- northwest coast is said, when rallygrown, to have a stem measuring 300 feel 

 in length, which bears at its summit an air bulb, from which 

 a tuft of upward of 50 long, streamer-like leaves extend, 

 each of which is from 30 to 40 feet in length. The stem, 

 which anchors this floating mass, though no thicker than a 

 common window cord, is of great strength and flexibility^ 

 ami has for ages been used by the natives as fishing lines, 

 being tirst cut of the required length, which is where the 

 stem ! ifL-'iu- to expand into the hollow tube, and varies from 

 10 to 15 fathoms, then soaked in fresh water in a running 

 brook until it is nearly bleached, then stretched, rubbed to 

 the required size, and dried in the smoke in the lodge. 

 When dried it is very brittle, but when wet it is exceed- 

 ingly strong, and equal to the best flax or cotton fishing 

 lines of the white fishermen. These pieces, varying from 

 into 15 fathoms each, are knotted together to the required 

 length of SO fathoms, required in the deep-water fishing 

 around the entrance to Fuca Strait, or 200 fathoms at Queen 

 Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, where the natives take 

 the black cod at that profound depth. 



Until within a few years the coast Indians used the 

 upper or hollow portion of these great kelp >tems as recep- 

 tacles for holding dog-fish oil, which, together with the 

 paunches of seals and sea-lions and whale gut. properly 

 prepared, were the utensils found in every house for hold- 

 ing the family supplies of whale, seal, or salmon oil 

 which are used as articles of food, or lor dog-fish oil, 

 which is used for trading purposes only. Now. however, 

 the Indians are using coal-oil cans, barrels, ami other uten- 

 sils easily procured from the white traders, and the use of kelp for holding oil is nearly abandoned. 



Among my collections for the National Museum in 1885 1 received a number of specimens of 



Giant kelp Nt • ocystis lutkeana). 



