CHAP, x.] CHANGE OF SYSTEM. 443 



ing the large towns and cities quietly to lie on their oars. 

 Kailways having given facilities to the east coast of Fife 

 fishers, as well as those on the opposite coast, to send their 

 produce to market from their own respective villages, and a 

 new class of traders having arisen viz. fishmongers having 

 retail shops the creel -hawking trade is now fast declin- 

 ing, and as a following result so also must be the material 

 wealth of the villages that were in a great measure dependent 

 upon it. In fact, railways have quite revolutionised the fish 

 trade. There are a few females, formerly creel-hawkers, who 

 continue still to act as retailers of fish. But many of them 

 have taken shops, and others stalls in retail markets, and 

 attend the wholesale market regularly to purchase their 

 supplies. These retail dealers in fish do remarkably well ; 

 but those who still continue to hawk about a few haddocks 

 or whitings when they can be procured find that creel-hawk- 

 ing is but a precarious trade. 



I will now carry the reader with me to a very quaint place 

 indeed, the scene of Sir Walter Scott's novel of The Antiquary 

 Auchmithie ; and then on to Fittie, at Aberdeen another 

 fishing quarter of great originality : we will go in the steamer. 



Steamboat travelling has been in some degree superseded 

 by the railway carriage ; but to tourists going to Inverness or 

 Thurso the steamer has its attractions. It is preferable to the 

 railroad when the time occupied in the journey is not an ob- 

 ject. On board a fine steamboat one has opportunities to 

 study character, and there are always a few characters on 

 board a coasting steam-vessel. And going north from Edin- 

 burgh the coast is interesting. The steamer may pass the 

 Anster or Dunbar herring-fleet. 



" Up the waters steerin', 



The boats are thick and thrang ; 

 Aboon the Bass they're bearin', 

 They'll shoot their nets ere lang. 



