24 THE UNAPPRECIATED FISHER FOLK. 
year round, and these, as the saying is, “follow the fish” 
from the far-away seas of Scotland to Yarmouth, and 
scarcely ever know an idle day. Wherever the herrings 
make their appearance the Scottish boats, with their hardy 
and industrious crews, are sure to be participating in the 
work of capture, whether at Cullercoats, Holy Island, the 
Isle of Man, or Yarmouth. 
We have, so far, only endeavoured to show the round of 
labour incidental to the chief herring fishery of the year— 
there are winter herring fisheries in Scotland as well, some 
of which are very successful, but the great outlet for all 
persons interested in “the herring ” is, of course, the fisheries 
of the autumn season. Then a large number of persons 
who do not fish all the year round, try to earn “an orra 
pound or may be twa” by assisting, at what is at that season 
an almost universal industry; cobblers lay down their 
lapstones, gardeners put aside their spades, and turn out 
with some one or other of the boats, in the hope of sharing 
in the bounty of the waters. At the chief herring ports a 
large number of persons other than the usual population 
find employment ; an influx of men and women from the 
Highlands and Islands is one of the features of the fish- 
ing season. The hawking of fresh herrings from such 
places as Montrose, Peterhead, and Berwick or Eyemouth, 
also affords employment to a considerable number of 
persons, so that the bustle incidental to a herring port in 
the brief time devoted to the capture of the fish produces an 
exciting change in some usually quiet enough fishing com- 
munities. It is evident, too, that a sum of two anda half 
millions sterling, which it has been calculated should in 
recent years be about the value of the herrings caught in 
Scotland will cover a large series of distributions. The 
capture of the sprat in its season (a toothsome fish), for 
