76 THE UNAPPRECIATED FISHER FOLK. 
their lives have been mingled, and which they could not 
change if they were willing. A frequent charge made 
against fishermen is that they are lazy and extravagant, 
living when they have the chance a riotous life. The charge 
is a strained one. As has been indicated, they cannot 
regulate their hours of work by the sounding of a factory 
bell, they can only go to sea when the condition of the 
water is favourable, and when men have had a continuous 
spell of work, lasting from sixteen to sixty or seventy hours, 
they require corresponding rest. No fisherman has the 
privilege of an eight hours’ day, like the well-timed 
mechanic or factory worker ; nor has any fisherman a share 
of those amenities which fall to the working-class popula- 
tion of towns ; no institutes or cheerful clubs ; no well-filled 
libraries. The dwelling places of many of the fisher people 
are often remote from the haunts of civilisation, in hamlets 
that are utterly destitute of any means of spreading know- 
ledge, and when the fishermen congregate at the larger 
fishing-ports their work is a work of emergency, which has 
to be prosecuted with great rapidity, and admits of no time 
of recreation. 
The heroism of such a life as is led by our fishermen 
from day to day all the year round has never, we think, 
been so much appreciated as it should be. The dangers 
of the deep are proverbial, and of these, the toilers of the 
sea, who bring to land such a magnificent contribution to 
the national commissariat have a full share, the danger 
being not a little aggravated by the want of good harbours. 
The value of the food which is annually brought to us from 
the waters has been estimated at various large sums— 
ranging from five to fourteen millions sterling, and taking 
even the smaller figure, it betokens an amount of enterprise 
and work which is not a little remarkable—it is so much 
