ooseberry, &c., also in many of the algae or sea-weeds, which are, or
ought to be, much employed as a delicate article of nourishment. The
edible swallow's nest, so greatly esteemed by the Chinese, is an alga,
gathered by the birds. The Ceylon moss (_Gigartina lichenoides_), and
the carrageen or Irish moss (_Chondrus crispus_), with many others,
might be made to contribute largely to the subsistence of man. Not
merely earth, from its fruitful bosom, but the vast ocean, offer their
rich produce to nourish and sustain the only intelligent occupant of
the globe, who should ever remember the declaration of the psalmist,
"O Lord! how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them
all: the earth is full of thy riches; so is the great and wide sea!"
(Ps. civ.)

FOOTNOTES:

[A] The Greeks used to say that reeds had contributed to subjugate a
people, by furnishing arrows; to soften their manner, by the charm of
music; and to develop their intelligence, by offering them the
instruments proper for the formation of letters.--_Humboldt's Personal
Narrative._

"The reed presents itself as an object of peculiar veneration, when we
reflect that it formed the earliest instrument by which human ideas,
and all the charms of literature and science were communicated, and
which has handed down to us the light of religion and the glow of
genius from the remotest ages."--_Drummond's First Steps to Botany._

[B] "The Guaraons, a free and independent people, dispersed in the
Delta of the Oronooko, owe their independence to the nature of their
country; for it is well known that, in order to raise their abodes
above the surface of the waters, at the period of the great
inundations, they support them on the cut trunks of the mangrove tree,
and of the _Mauritia flexuosa_."--_Humboldt, Personal Narrative_,
vol. iii. p. 277. The same people make bread of the medullary flour of
this palm, which it yields in great abundance, if cut down just before
going to flower.--_Ibid._, vol. iii. p. 278. To these circumstances
Thomson alludes:--

"Wide o'er his isles the branching Oronooque
Rolls a brown deluge, and the native driven
To dwell aloft on life-sufficing trees,
At once his home, his robe, his food, his arms."

[C] The connection of navigation with the progress of civilization is
most intimate, as may be understood from the following passage:--

"Among the circumstances which have contributed to retard the progress
of civ