32 FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. CH. XXII. 



coasts. This is owing chiefly to the constant war- 

 fare carried on against them by the salmon-fishers, 

 who either destroy them or frighten them away 

 as far as they can from their fishing stations. 



On the neck of land at which we have now 

 arrived there is a hut inhabited during the season 

 by a couple of salmon-fishers, whose business it is 

 to attend to the stake-net, which stretches out from 

 near their hut into the sea. A lonely life these men 

 must lead, from March to September, varied only by 

 visits from or to their comrades, who are stationed 

 at the depot of ice at Findhorn, where all the fish 

 caught are sent to be kept till a sufficient quantity 

 is ready to load one of their quick-sailing vessels for 

 London. But if their life is lonely it is not idle, as 

 the exposed situation of their nets renders them 

 liable to constant injury from wind and sea. At 

 every low tide the men scramble and wade to the 

 end or trap part of the net to take out the fish 

 which have been caught, and to scrape off the net 

 the quantity of sea-weed that has adhered to it 

 during the last tide. Although they do not always 

 find salmon, they are seldom so unlucky as not to 

 catch a number of goodly-sized flounders, which 

 fall to the share of the fishermen themselves ; and 

 perhaps once or twice in the season a young seal 

 gets entangled and puzzled in the windings of the 



