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He sometimes demands rent for what is altogether incapable of

human improvements. Kelp is a species of sea-weed, which, when

burnt, yields an alkaline salt, useful for making glass, soap,

and for several other purposes. It grows in several parts of

Great Britain, particularly in Scotland, upon such rocks only as

lie within the high-water mark, which are twice every day covered

with the sea, and of which the produce, therefore, was never

augmented by human industry. The landlord, however, whose estate

is bounded by a kelp shore of this kind, demands a rent for it as

much as for his corn-fields.