INTRODUCTION. XXIX 



(near Belfast) for feeding- pigs. Boiling water 

 being* poured upon it, which softens and renders it 

 glutinous^ it is then mixed with greens and potatoes^ 

 or even g-iven bj itself. Many persons have assured 

 me that the pigs are not only very fond of it, but 

 that they thrive upon it remarkably well." And at 

 Minehead, on the Somerset coast, I find that the 

 poor occasionally gather it for their pigs, giving it 

 to them partially boiled, along with oatmeal or 

 bran. Fucus serratus is also used as winter proven- 

 der, and in Norway is called bred-tang , being* given 

 to the cattle sprinkled with meal. During the 

 severe winter of 1847, many of the poor along the 

 western and north-west coasts of Ireland, subsisted 

 almost entirely upon sea-weed, probably the chdse, 

 Rhodymenia palmata, which is by far the most abun- 

 dant edible species; it is the dulliosg of the Highland- 

 ers, and dillisk of the Irish. After being soaked in 

 fresh water it is eaten, either boiled or dried, and 

 in the latter state it has something of a violet scent 

 and flavour. In the Islands of the Archipelago it 

 is a favourite ingredient to ragouts, imparting a red 



