1883. J THE INDUSTRIES OF SHETLAND. 31 



Islands, and in autumn, as far north as Iceland. There is also ' home 

 cod fishing ' on banks off tlie south-west of Shetland, carried on in 

 smacks of small size, besides one other branch of this adventurous 

 trade, which is the 'Winter fishing.' This last-named, and most 

 hazardous, pursuit is carried on in small four-oared boats belonging to 

 the hardy adventurers who engage, always at their own charge' and 

 risk of life and outfit, in this kind of fishing. A toast of Shetland, 

 when the fisher-farmers meet at an annual feast to inaugurate the 

 grey fish season, is, ' May the Lord open the moutli of the- grey fish , 

 and hauld His hand about the corn.' 



The largest of the fishing stations is at Feideland. A rocky 

 isthmus at the northern end of Mainland separates the Atlantic from 

 Yell Sound, and beyond it is a terminal peninsula called the Ness 

 of Feideland. A cluster of ' stacks,' or high rocks, stands out at sea 

 about a mile from the shore. The huts of the fishermen occupy 

 numerous rows upon the isthmus, which is, in fact, a low storm-beach 

 of pebbles rolled up by winds and waves. During many months in 

 each year Feideland is deserted, till in spring its whole aspect changes 

 — men arrive for the boats, beach-boys and women for splitting, wash- 

 ing, salting, spreading and drying the fish, and innumerable sea-gulls 

 as attendant scavengers. Not less than thirty-one six-areens and two 

 four-areens were here in a recent year. 



' Old Wick,' writing to the Field, says : — 



* Each curer's boys have a hut to themselves, while the storekeepers sleep in 

 the booths belonging to their respective employers. The fishermen and boys 

 go home every Saturday — some to Yell, some to Delting, and a few to other 

 parts of Northmaven for the " helie," as they term the interval between sunset 

 on Saturday and sunrise on Monday — a period during which, by the old country 

 Acts, all Shetlanders were foi'bidden to fish, travel by sea or land, or be in any 

 way engaged on secular matters. Up to within the last forty years or so, almost 

 all the boats used in Shetland were imported from Norway in boards ready for 

 putting together. At the ]3fesent day, with the exception of a few big boats, 

 they are all built in Shetland, though the model used is, with very little, if any, 

 alteration, still the same— that of the old Norwegian jawl.' 



These ' sixterns,' as they are called, from the number of their oars, 

 are slimly built, about 61 ft. broad, 3 ft. deep, with from 20 ft. to 

 21 ft. of keel. They are marnied by six men, and carry a lug-sail con- 

 taining not less than 60 yards of canvas. But in spite of the skill 

 with which these boats were managed, the great storm of July 20th, 

 1881, almost entirely destroyed the ohetland fleet of fishing boats, and 

 the ' sixterns ' are being rapidly superseded by decked boats of larger 

 size. In 1877 there were only tvvo decked boats belonging to the 

 islands, in 1882 there were one hundred and eighty-three. 



* Old Wick ' describes with an angler's zest the method of fishing 



D 



