NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY, 151 



eft ; fometimes they are found with a mart, roundifh ftem, and 

 leaves about two or three fingers broad, with fmall femicircular 

 indentures like the oak leaf, fometimes they are longer, and at 

 the end refemble peacocks feathers; fometimes plain, fometimes 

 fcabrous, with hollow tubercles, but, as far as I could find, with- 

 out any feeds in them. A fea-weed is fometimes found here, 

 with leaves of fuch a length and breadth, and withal even and 

 fmooth, that I do not know of any of our land vegetables to be 

 compared to them; I have taken out leaves four ells and a half 

 long and one in breadth, and fo perfectly even and fmooth, that 

 at firft fight a ftranger would have taken them for green fatting 

 and among thefe weeds, the lobfter finds both food and fhelter. 

 Whether this tarre bloffoms like other vegetables, I cannot affirm 

 from my own knowlege, but a perfon of curiosity has allured me, 

 that he has feen the flowers fwimming on the furface of the wa- 

 ter, and that they refemble white lilies; and promifed at the fame 

 time to procure me fome. I here mean only the genera, not 

 doubting, but upon further fearch, feveral particular fpecies of 

 them may be found on the coafl of Norway, and other coafb, 

 efpecially in Iceland, where the poverty of the inhabitants has 

 taught them to turn the fea-weeds to various ufes, every kind ac~ 

 • cording to its nature, even to the grinding it to a kind of meal Its ufe and 

 for gruel or pottage, which at the fame time proves a gentle ca- 

 thartic *. The peafants on the fea-coaft in thefe parts, who un- 

 derftand their buiinefs, make ufe of fea-weeds for manure in the 

 improvement of- their ground, and in the province of Nordland 

 where in fummer-time the cattle find plenty of paftare on the 

 mountains and among the meadows, but where on that account 

 they are the more pinched in their winter fodder; it is a common 

 pra&ice to fupply this fcarcity with dried tang, and likewife with 

 the heads of cods and other large fifh bones; they alfo make what 

 they call a caw-foup, of which the beft ingredient is tang or fea- 



* Concerning the fpecies of the alga faccharifera as it is called, which when dried 

 looks and taftes as if fugar had been ftrewn over it, and among the Icelanders in 

 many cafes, is uied^for fugar. See Thorn. Bartholini Acla medka, Hafir. Vol. Ill 

 p. 174. Vol. IV. p. 33. Multa faxis marinis adhaeret algas copia, quam vere'colli<mnt' 

 ahquo tempore interjecto album acquirit colorem, cujus eft etiam in commendatione 

 iapor cum dulcedine non inferior fit faccharo. Hanc quoque cum butyro comedunt 

 Iflandi. Seealfop. 159. relat. Borrichii. 



Paw I. R r weeA 



