AN UNCLEAN BUSINESS. 



155 



up stacks of herring-barrels, and stacks of billet-wood 

 ready to be converted into staves for more barrels. The 

 scene is one of confusion, yet with a certain order in it ; 

 and of coarseness, yet not without an element of the 

 picturesque. 



WICK HARBOUR DURING TH K FISHING-SEASON. 



When a sufficient quantity of fish has been emptied 

 into the troughs, the process of evisceration (vulgo, "gut- 

 ting ") commences. This is performed by females, hundreds 

 of whom in this way contribute to defray the household 

 expenses and to keep the " bairns " at school. It is an 

 unclean business, however, to say the least of it, and soon 

 effects a complete " transmogrification " in the appearance 

 of the buxom, stalwart females who, prior to the arrival 

 of the fish, had loitered about the curing-yard in gaily- 



