THE BEACH. 
61 
ing a stone half as large as my head. We sometimes 
watched a mass of this cable-like weed, as it was tossed 
up on the crest of a breaker, waiting with interest to see 
it come in, as if there was some treasure buoyed up by 
it; but we were always surprised and disappointed at the 
insignificance of the mass which had attracted us. As 
we looked out over the water, the smallest objects float¬ 
ing on it appeared indefinitely large, we were so im¬ 
pressed by the vastness of the ocean, and each ore bore 
so large a proportion to the whole ocean, which we saw 
We were so often disappointed in the size of such things 
as came ashore, the ridiculous bits of wood or weed, with 
which the ocean labored, that we began to doubt whether 
the Atlantic itself would bear a still closer inspection, 
and would not turn out to be but a small pond, if it 
should come ashore to us. This kelp, oar-weed, tangle, 
devifs-apron, sole-leather, or ribbon-weed, — as various 
species are called, — appeared to us a singularly marine 
and fabulous product, a fit invention for Neptune to 
adorn his car with, or a freak of Proteus. All that 
is told of the sea has a fabulous sound to an inhabitant 
of the land, and all its products have a certain fabulous 
quality, as if they belonged to another planet, from 
sea-weed to a sailor’s yarn, or a fish-story. In this ele¬ 
ment the animal and vegetable kingdoms meet and are 
strangely mingled. One species of kelp, according to 
Bory St. Vincent, has a stem fifteen hundred feet long, 
and hence is the longest vegetable known, and a brig’s 
crew spent two days to no purpose collecting the trunks 
of another kind cast ashore on the Falkland Islands, 
mistaking it for drift-wood. (See Harvey on Algce,) 
This species looked almost edible; at least, I thought that 
if I were starving I would try it. One sailor told me 
