JULY. HERRING-FISHING IN SUTHERLAND. 251 



Besides the natives of the fishing villages, a con- 

 siderable number of Highlanders from the western 

 part of the country come down to earn a few 

 pounds during the herring season; it is almost the 

 only cash these poor fellows get hold of in the 

 course of the year. Most of the boats belong to 

 two or three proprietors each, who having in the 

 course of many years laid by a few pounds, expend 

 them in the purchase of a herring-boat. These men 

 hire the services of four or five hands for the season, 

 the duration of which is about six weeks, and give 

 them a certain sum, according to agreement, gener- 

 ally about four to six pounds per man. Unluckily, 

 many of the families of the herring-fishers derive 

 but little benefit from the wages earned, as too fre- 

 quently the men spend all the money, or nearly all, 

 in drinking and rioting as soon as the fishing is 

 over, and, instead of providing for their wives and 

 children, are too apt to lounge about the whisky- 

 shops as long as a farthing remains, never attend- 

 ing to the haddock or other fishing till driven again 

 to exertion by sheer necessity. This, however, does 

 not apply to the whole race of herring -fishers. 

 Those men who come to the fishing on the east 

 coasts from the Highlands generally take their 

 money carefully home, depending on it for buy- 

 ing clothes, paying rent, procuring seed-potatoes, 



