LOCH BOISDALE. 149 



quantities both for home consumption and exportation. 

 Now the fishers have to go further out to sea in quest of 

 spoil, and for several years this branch of industry under- 

 went a disastrous decline. But of late the attention of 

 capitalists has been directed to its importance, and the 

 inhabitants of Lewes and South Uist derive their chief 

 subsistence from it. Loch Boisdale, a deep inlet on the 

 east coast of the Long Island, is in the herring-season 

 a scene of the liveliest activity. At all other times, truth 

 to tell, it is desolation itself; but when the spring-time 

 brings with it the silvery shoals, smacks, skiffs, open 

 boats, and wherries make the narrow waters shady : not 

 a creek, however small, but holds some boat in shelter. 

 A small fleet congregates in the far-away misty loch : the 

 Leven boat, from the east coast, with its three masts 

 and three huge lug-sails ; the Newhaven boat, with its 

 two lug-sails; the Isle of Man "jigger;" the beautiful 

 Guernsey " runner," handsome as a racing yacht, and 

 powerful as a revenue cutter ; besides all the numberless 

 fry of less noticeable vessels, from the solid west-country 

 smack down to the rude-built two-masted Arran wherry. 

 Swarms of sea-gulls are cradled on the crest of every 

 wave, though the loch is so incrusted with the oily fishy 

 deposit that only a strong wind can break up its tranquil 

 surface. Everywhere on the barren shore and heathery 

 hill-sides, and on the innumerable rocky islets sprinkled 

 up and down the inlet, rises the smoke of the fishermen's 

 encampments. Busy men and women and children, 

 bronzed with exposure to the salt air, surround the curing- 

 houses and the inn, while weary fishers are stretched full- 

 length upon the beach, dreaming away the hours till 

 nightfall. About three or four o'clock they spring to 



