XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 



use of for the same purpose — when dried and tipped 

 with metal, they are said to be hardly distinguish- 

 able from horn. The natives in the Sandwich Is- 

 lands, and along the coasts of the Pacific, are said 

 to gather many species of sea-weed for food. The 

 cord-like stem of the Nereocystis is used as a 

 fishing-line by the native tribes on the north-west- 

 ern shores of America, and the large hollow stem 

 of Ecklonia buccinalis, trumpet-weed, which grows 

 at the Cape of Good Hope, is, we are told, often 

 used as a siphon in that colony, and by the native 

 herdsmen is formed into a trumpet for collecting the 

 cattle at evening. 



As a manure, sea-weed is much valued by the 

 dwellers along many of our sea-shores. On the 

 west of Ireland the poor eagerly collect all that is 

 thrown up after heavy storms, for manuring their 

 potatoes with. The kinds they prefer for this pur- 

 pose. Dr. Harvey says, are the large and succulent 

 Laminariae, which rapidly melt into the ground, 

 and when these are abundant, other kinds are ne- 

 glected. But it is in the Channel Islands that the 



