16 HANDY BOOK OF 



cast by the waves upon the shore in places where as yet the 

 plants have not begun to vegetate, or the bordering inhabit- 

 ants would be unable to appropriate them; — harvest of the 

 deep are they, anxiously expected, and attended to with 

 equal care as those of land. In Ireland, especially, the poor 

 almost entirely depend for manure on different kinds oifuci, 

 which the waves deposit on their coasts in stormy weather. 

 Scarcely has the storm subsided, and the towering billows 

 abated somewhat of their fury, than troops of country-people 

 assemble, some with cars and horses, some only with 

 donkeys having panniers slung across their backs ; others, 

 too poor even to afford such humble assistance, eagerly 

 collect whatever the sea has thrown within their reach, 

 which having made into bundles, they often drag, with the 

 aid of their wives and children, to a considerable distance. 

 * Large and succulent kinds of fuci, with laminarice, are 

 preferred for potato grounds; and when mixed with sea- 

 sand they make excellent manure for different purposes. 



These plants, rooting themselves in places apparently the 

 most ungenial, exhibit an energy of vegetable life which 

 has no parallel on land. Years have passed since an 

 hazardous attempt was made, near the entrance of the Frith 

 of Forth, to erect a stone beacon on a low rock called the 

 Carr. The rock was scarcely more than twenty feet broad 

 and sixty long, and was covered with water, except at the 

 lowest ebb of spring tide. But, despite the waves and winds 

 that often contended for mastery, fuci of different kinds 

 grew there luxuriantly, and presented a rich oasis of verdure 

 when rendered visible by the withdrawing of the tide ; the 

 workmen, however, did not heed them, they were soon 

 cleared away, and a considerable portion of their rough 

 growing-place was made smooth with pickaxes. Early in 

 November, the work was necessarily abandoned for the 

 winter, at which time scarcely a weed was left, the greater 

 portion having been destroyed, and such as remained were 

 trampled on by the workmen, The rook, thus despoiled, 



