MARINE BOTANY. 15 



collect and burn tlie sea- weeds, clamours were succeeded by 

 violent opposition, till at length, it became necessary that 

 officers of justice should be sent to protect the workmen. 

 Trials ensued, and advocates pleaded gravely that the suffo- 

 cating smoke produced by burning sea- weeds would destroy 

 the sheep and cattle, and drive away the fish. Yet, still the 

 work progressed, and estates well bordered with sea-weeds 

 increased so much in value, that, where the plants did not 

 grow naturally, attempts were made to cultivate them, by 

 covering the sandy bay with large stones. 



Who is there that does not often vividly remember the season 

 of hay-making amid the din and stir of thronged streets, 

 or on far-off shores ? "With, equal vividness the native of 

 the Orkneys recalls to mind the time of cutting weeds on his 

 own bold coast, even if his lot be cast in regions where the 

 drifting sea-weed has alone aught in common with, tire 

 vegetable productions of a stranger clime. Imagine one of 

 those wild spots where the restless waves, having laid aside 

 their fierceness, and hushed their loud clamours, sport 

 merrily among tho rocks, rippling and sparkling, and tossing 

 their crests of broken foam ; now covering the meadows of 

 sea- weeds, and again receding, till the dripping fronds, 

 shaken by the breeze of ocean, reflect innumerable prismatic 

 colours. Men are there, who step from stone to stone among 

 the weeds, and lay them low — as mowers the ripe grass : 

 women, too, who collect them in bundles ; and children, all 

 glee and gossip, who joyfully aid their parents, and pick up 

 such straggling branches as are left upon the sand. The 

 bundles are then speedily spread abroad, and left to dry in 

 the sun and wind, after which they are gathered into heap- 

 like windcocks in meadows, during the season of hay har- 

 vest ; and when autumn comes, they are thrown into pits 

 dug along the shore, and being set on fire, burn gradually, 

 till reduced to hard dark-coloured cakes, in which state they 

 are sent to market. 



Nor less valuable are deposits of such kinds offuci, when 



