32 VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 



The fishing business here engrosses the whole 

 attention of the men. To this they constantly re- 

 sort in all seasons and weathers, in small light skiffs 

 which they get from Norway. These boats go out 

 about noon, and do not return until three, and 

 sometimes six o'clock the following day. During 

 that time they often go twelve leagues from land. 

 The yearly export of fish to foreign markets, par- 

 ticularly those of Spain and Italy, amounts to se- 

 veral hundred tons. 



Agriculture, in the Shetland Isles, is at a very 

 low ebb. The land being in general very barren, 

 rocky, and chiefly depending on the tillage of the 

 women, yields but scanty produce. The labour, 

 in the lesser isles, is performed by digging over 

 the soil like a garden. Their spade is narrow, 

 like that used in cutting peats, and not at all si- 

 milar to that with which they dig in Britain and 

 Ireland. 



After the seed is sown, (which they do in a very 

 awkward manner, going backwards as if sowing 

 onion seeds,) the women drag a kind of harrow, 

 made wholly of wood, over it, taking bold of a 



boats into the bay, and burned and destroyed about 400 of the 

 Dutch fishing vessels, sparing only a number barely sufficient to 

 carry home the crews of the whole... 



