THEIR ROUND OF LIFE AND LABOUR. II 
from “the herring,” the capture and cure of which in many 
places of the United Kingdom, and also in Ireland, is a 
long established feature of fishery economy. 
The chief agent in the organisation of this very onerous 
industry is known in Scottish fishing ports as “the curer,” 
two-thirds of the herring which are caught by boats fishing 
from Scottish ports, being ultimately sold as cured herrings, 
the other third finding its way to market—by means of 
industrious “buyers” who are now to be found at every 
fishing port—as “fresh herrings.” Herring commerce is 
still to a large extent centred in the curer, who finds the 
materials necessary for the cure, and engages persons to 
superintend the different processes which are incidental to 
its progress. Some curers carry on a really gigantic 
business, engaging to accept the fish which are caught 
by several hundred boats, besides buying, as occasion 
offers, from boats fishing on their own account. It is 
necessary to state this in order to show such features 
of the business as relate to the earnings of the fishermen 
employed, many of whom receive but a scanty share of the 
large sums, which at times are paid for the fish. It has to 
be said generally of the herring fishery as regards the 
remuneration of the larger number of those engaged in it, 
that it partakes greatly of the nature of a lottery, in 
which some few fortunate individuals secure most of the 
prizes, leaving the blanks to the majority of those who 
participate in the enterprise. 
Before proceeding to give details of the really hard 
labour involved in catching the fish, it will be as well to 
describe in a few sentences the constitution of the fishery. 
We will assume then that Mr. Peterkin, of Wick—there is 
probably no such person, but we shall assume that there 
is—has set up business as a curer, has become the tenant 
