22l REV. R. COWE ON THE WHITE-FISHERY ON 



boat by means of a clippet or large hook fastened to the end of a 

 stick. 



In prosecuting" the herring-fishing, the fishermen are often directed 

 by the appearance of whales, solan-geese, gulls, and the oily appear- 

 ance of the water; but no such indication guides them in the haddock- 

 fishing. They try here and there till they fall in with them. Some- 

 times they are very abundant immediately after the herring-fishing 

 at those spots where the herring-spawn is deposited. The haddocks 

 and cod eat it voraciously, and are sometimes got on every hook on such 

 ground while the food lasts, when hardly one is to be got any where 

 else. 



The Berwick boats do not generally go so far out to sea at the 

 haddock-fishing as the Eyemouth and Burnmouth boats, their market 

 being so early that they would be too late for supplying it with fresh 

 fish were they to go very far off. They employ, accordingly, a lighter 

 and much smaller class of boats than the others, such as they can row 

 with considerable rapidity in calm weather. The crew consists g-e- 

 nerally of four men, never more than five. They are a very unsafe 

 class of boats in stormy weather. 



The boats in use at the other places just named, are the same as 

 those employed at the herring-fishing, and manned by six men. 

 Though they seldom return earlier than three o'clock in the afternoon, 

 it is a matter of little moment to the sale of their fish, as most of them 

 are smoked and sent to the London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow mar- 

 kets. These boats are frequently taken with very heavy storms at 

 the distance of twelve or fifteen miles from the land, and are seen 

 plying to the shore with a head- wind when decked vessels are drift- 

 ing to leeward. One of them beat the Mermaid Cutter under a reefed 

 trysail a few years ago. The quantity of water thrown into them at 

 such times is very great, which the men for safety are constantly em- 

 ployed in throwing out. Sometimes the yard breaks, sometimes the 

 mast snaps like a carrot by the violence of the wind, in which cases, 

 the boat must roll and drift at the mercy of the elements, till a spare 

 one is put in the place of the broken one. Serious accidents occa- 

 sionally occur in the hazardous employment. About five years ago, 

 a Coldingham boat in a dreadful westerly wind went down under 

 sail, when all hands perished. Many of the other boats despaired of 

 reaching the shore that day, but they all got in safely with the above 

 exception, though not without torn sails and broken masts. They 

 get the haddocks in great numbers, in spring, on banks or shoals 

 about fifteen miles from the shore ; and the fish taken there are al- 

 ways larger than those caught nearer the land. A thousand is a 

 good take ; sometimes two thousand are taken at once ; but this sel- 

 dom happens. 



Three persons are employed at Berwick for every line in use, uii- 



