144 FIELD NOTES FOR THE YEAR. 



into the water. Altogether, a shoal of herring with its 

 numerous accompaniments is a most amusing and interesting 

 sight, independent of the consideration of the great im- 

 portance of this fish to mankind, the number of people to 

 whom it serves as food, and the number who are employed 

 in its pursuit. 



Besides the natives of the fishing villages, a considerable 

 number of Highlanders from the western part of the country 

 come down to earn a few pounds during the herring season ; 

 it is almost the only cash these poor fellows get hold of in 

 the course of the year. Most of the boats belong to two or 

 three proprietors each, who having in the course of many 

 years laid by a few pounds, expend them in the purchase of 

 a herring-boat. These men hire the services of four or five 

 hands for the season, the duration of which is about six 

 weeks, and give them a certain sum, according to agreement, 

 generally about four to six pounds per man. Unluckily, 

 many of the families of the herring-fishers derive but little 

 benefit from the wages earned, as too frequently the men 

 spend all the money, or nearly all, in drinking and rioting as- 

 soon as the fishing is over, and instead of providing for their 

 wives and children, are too apt to lounge about the whisky- 

 shops as long as a farthing remains, never attending to the 

 haddock or other fishing till driven again to exertion by sheer 

 necessity. This, however, does not apply to the whole race 

 of herring-fishers. Those men who come to the fishing on 

 the east coasts from the Highlands generally take their 

 money carefully home, depending on it for buying clothes, 

 paying rent, procuring seed-potatoes, and for any purpose 

 where ready money is required. 



To the spectator the pursuit of herrings in the magnificent 

 sea-lochs of Sutherland is attended with much that is inter- 

 esting and beautiful. When the fleet of boats makes its way 

 up a creek running far into the land, and overhung by wild 

 rocky precipices, which protect the boats from every breath 

 of wind, keeping the sea as smooth as glass, and echoing and 

 re-echoing every merry shout and call uttered by the fisher- 

 men during their pursuit, no description can give an adequate 

 idea of the romantic beauty of such a scene with all its- 

 accompaniments. This, however, is the bright side of the 

 picture, for many a dangerous gale and many a peril have 

 the poor fellows to encounter who shoot their herring-nets- 

 off the bleak eastern coasts of the country, where they are 



