CHAP, vii.] BEST KIND OF BOATS. 307 



the Bell Kock, Man-bank, Murray Bank, and Montrose Pits, 

 etc. 



The Scottish fishing-boats, with a few exceptions, are all 

 open ; but whilst the open boats are a subject of dispute, 

 they are an undoubted convenience to the men. The boats, 

 as a general rule, seldom go far from home except to the 

 seat of some particular fishery, and being low in the build the 

 nets are easily paid out and hauled in when they are so for- 

 tunate as to obtain a good haul of fish. The Scottish fishery 

 is mostly what may be called a local or shore fishery, as the 

 boats go out and come home, with a few exceptions, once in 

 the twenty-four hours. A few boats with a half deck have 

 been introduced of late years, and in these the fishermen can 

 make a much longer voyage ; but, as a rule, the Scottish 

 fishermen have not, like their English brethren, a comfortable 

 decked lugger in which to prosecute their labours. In the 

 event of a storm the open Scottish boats are poorly off, as 

 some of their harbours are at such times totally inaccessible, 

 and the boats being unable, from their frail construction, to 

 run out to sea, are frequently driven upon the rocky coasts 

 and wrecked, the men being drowned or killed among the rocks. 

 It is gratifying to think that a good number of harbours of 

 refuge have lately been constructed, and that in particular an 

 extensive one is being at present erected at Wick, the seat of 

 the great herring fishery. I have more than once, while con- 

 ducting inquiries into the fishing industries of the United 

 Kingdom, seen the storm break upon the herring-fleet while 

 it was engaged in the fishery. Such scenes are terribly 

 sublime, as boat after boat is engulphed by the ravening 

 waters, or is dashed against the rocky pillars of the 

 shore, and the men sucked into the deep by the powerful 

 waves. The sea is free to all, without tax and without 

 rent, but the price paid in human life is a terrible equiva- 

 lent : " It is only they who go down to the sea in ships 



