The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-08-15
ALONG THE SEASHORE.
GATHERING SEA NOISES ON THE
BEACH AT CoNEY ISLAND.
Preparing Specimens for the Curiosity
Observation-Disclosures Not All Vege-
tabIe-"skate Eggs"-Giant
Moses and Seaweed.
New York SUM-

"a
Coney island beach.
Found what?" queried the latter.
"Why, what you're huntin' for. "
"Pm not hunting for anything" said
the other,
that's what some one asked me while
ago They said / looked as if / was try
ing to find gold mine. After all. every
body that walks along shore rather ex
Gects to find something that has been
washed up; it's natural. l come down
every year." continued the old man. land
collect few odds and ends, chiefly for
the children. Shells, big-neck CLAIMS,
make famous things for them
to dig with. and then my girl,
she's in the moss business. Never heard
of the moss business? Why, bless you
pressin' moss. You see l come here and
to Rockaway about once week in the
season, and go browsin' round and pick
up the best moss / can find. Y on see it's
generally all mixed up in the sand, and
most folks wouldn't notice it, and those
that did wouldn't think it was worth col
lectin'.
"I've found few pieces to-day" and
the speaker opened his can and took out
a handful of rich green, purple, and red
weed look rich, don't they? But
they look better after my girl Nancy
takes them in hand. How is it done?
Why, easy enough. She takes and washes
them in fresh water and then trims
them up IN just the shape she wants
and puts on a wash of diluted gum arabic;
then they are spread on paper, and
If they are delicate they are
picked out into shape under or
needle Then she takes them out, puts a
piece of clean linen over them, then
another piece of paper and then puts the
whole thing in between two boards and
presses it in press In twenty-four
hours it's done, and the moss is dry and
pressed into the paper, so that you can
pass your finger right over it without
feelin' it. and the color never fades; it's
Joy forever. She then sets them on
stiff paper, puts on the scientific name
and where her old father found them
habita, she calls it-and they are ready
for the market. Some she sells to
schools; others are bound up into books;
and she's got fine collection, / can tell
you. She sells good many to the GU
riosity dealers, and so her work and mine
goes all over the country. | guess were
about the only ones right IN the business
Nancyis going to branch out next winter
She has a friend in Nassau and another
in California; they are goin' to send her
moss, so she will have specimens from
widely different parts of the world.
ats astonishin', " said the old collector,
show little folks know about these ordi-
nary things along shore. Now, [ dare
say you think that all the moss I've got
here is vegetable2"
Isn't it?" asked the listener, TO humor
his new acquaintance.
why, bless you, no. / never knew it
myself till one day Nancy said, i wonder
if 1t hurts these animals to crush them?
Plants, you mean, said / No, they're
animals she said, and she showed me the
little cells the little critters lived in
polygonS. she called them, and tell you
Il takes an expert to tell plant from ami
NAL in moss; they all look alike to me-
Take the sand collars you often fin d here;
what do people think they are? heard
one man say they were the print of
horses hoof hardened. Another thought
they were only sand; but if you hold one
up to the light and look through it you
can see what it is in minute it's the
eggs of the shell called the natica You
know these black four cornered oh
jects that wash ashore? Well. they
are called sea barrows, and lots
of some kind, but they are skate
eggs, and nothing else. You see the folks
that come down here most don't have the
time or the inclination to hunt out these
things The beauty of a soft Cam is in
the cooking, and of the Little Neck in the
way it is served. They don't care about
the habits of the creature
Sea moss is more or less valuable all
over the world. In Ireland the poorer
classes depend greatly upon the carrageen
moss, and some live upon it for months
quantities, and used as blanc mango and
In various ways. The Scotch have their
dulse and in the Hebrides the tangle is
eaten. In South America the natives eat
the moss that is known as DUrvilloea
utilis. It is a giant of its kind, sometimes
attains length of several hundred feet.
and is so stout that a small vessel could
anchor by one One found off the coast
of Chill was so heavy that it took sixty
men to drag it ashore 1t grows in the
breakers. and rolling about appears like
huge snakes, and often upsets boats that
become entangled in it.
Larger still is the great weed Macrocys-
tbs pyrifera, that attains q length of $50
feet or more 1t also grows in the break
ers, and is of great importance to some
coasts, as, were it not for its protection,
she sea would beat so furiously that no
fishes would go in shore, aud the inhab-
1tants would be deprived of means of sup
port This is especially true of the south
Pafagonian coast, and so important did
Darwin consider it that he once wrote;
1Amid the leaves of this plant numerous
species of fish live, which nowhere else
could find food or shelter; with their de-
struction the many cormorant and other
fishing birds, the offers, SEALS and por-
poises would soon persist also; and lastly.
the Fuegian savage-the miserable lord of
this miserable land-would redouble his
feast, decrease in numbers, and perhance
cease TO exist.
The seaweed collector Of New England
uses kelp to keep him warm, and in vari-
Gus parts of Europe it is used as medi-
cine, greater part of the iodine of trade
being made from it. Formerly the alkali
soda used in the manufacture of soap,
glass, and various articles was derived
from kelp, but it is now made from other
sources In France the kelp is placed in
great furnaces and dried, finally fusing
into solid mass that is known rs varec,
and in Spain as barrila Abou twenty
four tons of weed produces single ton
OF varec, that is shipped to manufacturers
IN the bulk, and finally used in the manu-
facture of iodine.
Modern Degeneraey
In the good old DAYS earthquakes were