248 FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. CH. XVIII. 



tracks along the shore and round the lochs. Near 

 a fox's hole in one of the woods I saw an almost 

 incredible collection of remains and disjecta membra 

 of ducks, turkeys, fowls, game of every kind, and 

 even of roe : apparently a litter of young foxes 

 had been brought up in it. 



On the 12th of July the Nairn herring-boats are 

 all launched to reap their uncertain harvest of her- 

 rings. Of late years the supply does not seem to 

 be nearly so regular or so much to be depended on 

 as formerly; and frequently the men are but badly 

 repaid for all their expense and risk. The cost of 

 a herring-boat here, complete, with its rigging, nets, 

 etc., is not much less than ninety pounds; and the 

 wear and tear of the nets is very great, owing to 

 bad weather and other causes : the hull alone of 

 the boat costs about twenty-seven pounds. There 

 are five men in each boat ; and Nairn alone sends 

 out about sixty boats, so that from that small place 

 not less than three hundred able-bodied men are 

 for six or seven weeks employed in the pursuit of 

 this small but valuable fish. The herrings are 

 generally bought up beforehand by the fish-curers 

 at Helmsdale, on the Sutherland coast, and at other 

 parts, who contract to take the whole proceeds of the 

 season's fishing at a fixed price ; so that, notwith- 

 standing the immense number caught, the supply of 



