8 THE UNAPPRECIATED FISHER FOLK. 
unaffected reply. Many of the Scottish fisher folk are 
deeply religious ; in some communities the men and women 
conduct a service of praise and thanksgiving, and the un- 
lettered eloquence of a rude preacher of that class would 
sometimes shame the cultured rhetoric of the pulpit. 
The conditions of their shore life, till within these few 
years back, was shameful ; the fishing villages of Scotland 
were as a rule devoid of all amenity, their sanitary surround- 
ings were of the rudest and scantiest description; dirt— 
otherwise “matter in the wrong place’”—obtruded itself at 
every corner. Some improvement in these matters has 
now been happily effected, and the thin end of the wedge 
having been inserted, more perfect sanitary arrangements 
will doubtless follow in a short time. As we propose to 
describe at some length the chief aspects of fishery labour 
in connection with the more productive fisheries, we need 
not here refer to the calumnies that have been directed 
against the fisher folk, such as the accusations of laziness 
and their want of thrift. It will be seen in the sequel that 
such accusations are either entirely untrue or have been 
grossly exaggerated. “It is no doubt considered by some 
to be an easy way to wealth to prosecute the herring or 
white fish fisheries, and secure a harvest grown on a farm 
where there is no rent payable, the seed of which is sown 
in plenty by nature, which requires no manure to force it 
to maturity, and no wages for its cultivation. But it is not 
all gold that glitters. There are risks of life and property 
that are unknown to the industries which are followed on 
the land.” * 
The fisher folk, taking them all over, will compare most 
favourably with other classes as regards the labours of the 
men and the virtue of the women ; their humble homes, as a 
* ‘Harvest of the Sea ’—third edition. 
