The utility of this expedient is obvious; and we trust that it is, or at least will be, generally adopted on board of every ship that is bound to a distant port.
Sea-weed. See Manure, vol. iii. p. 160.
SEA-WOLF, or Anarrhicas Lupus, L. a voracious fish that creeps in the manner of eels, and in the spring frequents the shores of Greenland, Iceland, and Norway, as likewise the coasts of Yorkshire and Scotland, where it is caught; measuring from four to seven feet in length.
The Sea-wolf is one of the most ferocious inhabitants of the ocean; its head is somewhat flat on the top, and is furnished with numerous teeth, which are so strong as to make impressions even on stones and anchors. Its food consists of prawns, crabs, lobsters, and other testaceous fish, which it devours, together with their shells.
These fish, when taken, bite with uncommon severity: the fishermen, therefore, knock out their fore-teeth, and kill them by blows on the head. Their flesh being very rank, is relished only by their captors, who eat it both in a fresh, and in a dry or salted, state.—The reputed toad-stones (bufonites) are supposed to originate from the petrified teeth of the sea-wolf.
SEA-WRACK, or Fucus, L. a genus of vegetables, comprehending 145 species, 85 of which grow on the British coasts: of these we shall state the following as the principal:
1. The serratus, or Serrated Sea-wrack, is perennial, growing to the height of about two feet, and varying from a green to a yellowish or olive colour.—It is employed by the Dutgh for covering or packing lobsters and crabs, that are to be conveyed to a considerable distance; because it keeps them alive much longer than any other species of this plant; nor does it easily ferment, or become putrid.
2. The vesiculosus, Common Sea-wrack, or Sea-waure, is perennial, and grows to the height of one foot; producing its fructified parts in the months of July and Augnst.—It is an excellent manure; for, being strongly impregnated with saline particles, these are gradually imparted to the ground on which the plant is spread, and thus fertilize it in a remarkable degree. Indeed, if land be properly dressed with this maritime vegetable, it is asserted, that its efficacy will continue unexhausted, for seven or eight years; an advantage which dung does not possess, as it requires to be renewed every second or third year.
Beside its utility as a manure, the Sea-waure serves in Jura, Skye, and other Hebride islands, as a winter food for cattle, which regularly frequent the shores for it, after the tide has ebbed. The inhabitants of these isles, also, dry their cheese without using any salt, by covering it with the ashes of this plant; which abound with saline particles to such a degree, that they produce one half of their weight in fixed alkaline salts.
Farther, we are informed by Linnæus, that the inhabitants of Gothland boil the Common Sea-wrack together with a little coarse meal, by which they prepare a kind of wash for their hogs; and that the poorer classes, in Scania, not only thatch their cottages with it, but also employ it as fuel. The most profitable use of this plant, however, is that of making kelp,
