^26 REV. 11. COWE ON THE WHITE-FISHERY 



the boat by meaus of a clippet or largo hook fastened to the end of a 

 stick. 



In prosecuting the herring-fishing, the fishermen are often directed 

 by the appearance of whales, solan-geese, gulls, and the oily appearance 

 of the water ; but no such indication guides them in the haddock- 

 fishing. They try hero and there till they fall in with them. Some- 

 times they are very abundant immediately after the herring-fishing 

 at those spots where the herring-spawn is deposited. The haddocks 

 and cod eat it voraciously, and are sometimes got on every hook on 

 such grou.nd while the food lasts, when hardly one is to be got any 

 where else. 



The Berwick boats do not generally go so far out to sea at the 

 haddock-fishing as the Eyemouth and Burnmouth boats, their market 

 being so early that they would be too late for supplying it with fresh 

 fish were they to go very far off. They employ, accordingly, a lighter 

 and much smaller class of boats than the others, such as they can row 

 with considerable rapidity in calm weather. The crew consists gener- 

 ally of four men, never more than five. They are a very unsafe class 

 of boats in stormy weather. 



The boats in use at the other places just named, are the same as 

 those employed at the herring-fishing, and manned by six men. 

 Though they seldom return earlier than three o'clock in the afternoon, 

 it is a matter of little moment to the sale of their fish, as most of them 

 are smoked and sent to the London, Edinburgh, and Griasgow markets. 

 These boats are fi-equontly taken with very heavy storms at the 

 distance of twelve or fifteen miles from the land, and are seen plying 

 to the shore with a head- wind when decked vessels .are drifting to 

 leeward. One of them beat the Mermaid Cutter under a reefed trysail 

 a few years ago. The Cj[uantity of water thrown into them at such 

 times is very great, which the men for safety are constantly employed 

 in throwing out. Sometimes the yard breaks, sometimes the mast 

 snaps like a carrot by the violence of the wind, in which cases, the 

 boat must roll and drift at the mercy of the elements, till a spare one 

 is put in the place of the broken one. Serious accidents occasionally 

 occur in the hazardous employment. About five years ago, a Colding- 

 ham boat in a dreadful westerly wind went down under sail, when all 

 hands perished. Many of the other boats despaired of reaching the 

 shore that day, but they all got in safely with the above exception, 

 though not without torn sails and broken masts. They get the 

 haddocks in great numbers, in spring, on banks or shoals about fifteen 

 miles from the shore ; and the fish taken there are always larger than 

 those caught nearer the land. A thousand is a good take ; sometimes 

 two thousand are taken at once ; but this seldom happens. 



Three persons are employed at Berwick for every line in use, unless 

 when the bait is hired out, and one person undertakes two or more 



