i68 THE HOME OF A NATURALIST. 



engulfed in a rough sea. They are entirely without 

 deck, and are barely capable of bringing on shore from 

 thirty to sixty hundredweight of fish — the latter only 

 in the case of the largest-sized boats, and when the 

 sea is perfectly smooth. Such a quantity indeed will 

 load them so deeply as to leave but three or four inches 

 of free board. 



On returning from a day's or a night's fishing at the 

 haaf, the crew of six men generally haul their boat up 

 on the beach above high-water mark, and with perfect 

 ease. This will give an idea of the size of the Shet- 

 land fishing-boat. In form she is long and narrow 

 and pointed, with a considerable spring both at stem 

 and stern, — in fact just the Norwegian yawl with 

 some slight modifications and improvements. She 

 carries a large lug-sail on the one tall and slender 

 mast which rises straight up from am id-ships, and is 

 firmly secured to the stem and both sides by stays. 



Eight out on the Atlantic or North Sea during the 

 summer months, the hardy fishermen prosecute their 

 arduous and dangerous calling, their only provisions 

 being some half-baked oatmeal cakes and a small keg 

 of "blaand" — whey made from buttermilk. Sometimes 

 in fine settled weather they will run seaward as far as 

 forty or fifty miles or farther, in fact out of sight of 

 land, out on what seems a northward prolongation of 

 the Dogger Bank, nearly half way to Norway, which 

 is the best fishing-ground ; and then they are frequently 

 nearly two days and two nights at sea. It will readily 

 be understood that a sudden storm occurring when the 



