THE FISHING-SEASON. 159 



the end of the speet into the barrel, pushes off the her- 

 rings in the order in which they are to lie, radiating 

 from the centre, until each barrel contains seven hundred 

 and fifty, and appears gorged to repletion. Then the 

 barrel is removed to a press, which packs the fish closer, 

 and all is .ready for the final operation of " heading up."* 



The principal herring-season is during the autumn 

 that is, from August to October when the seas all round 

 our coasts are covered with herring-boats, stout, sturdy 

 barks, each with its single sail, square or " leg-of-mutton" 

 shaped. At this time every little bay which varies the 

 outline of our shores sends forth its tiny flotilla. Such 

 boats as do not belong to a local fishery proceed from the 

 small "fischar-villages" which are dotted here and there 

 in the shadow of our ancient cliffs. In fact, says a 

 Scotch writer, who is deservedly esteemed a standard au- 

 thority on this subject, wherever an enterprising curer 

 sets up his stand, there the boats will collect around him ; 

 and the boats draw there, as by a kind of magnetic 

 attraction, all sorts of miscellaneous people : dealers in 

 salt, dealers in barrel-staves, vendors of " cutch," Prus- 

 sian herring-buyers, buxom lasses from the inland dis- 

 tricts " to gut," and men from the Highlands desirous of 

 employment as " hired hands." Itinerant ministers and 

 revivalists appear on the scene, and deliver occasional 

 " discourses " to the hundreds of devout Scotch people, 

 who are always ready to join, to their honour be it said, 

 in a "diet of worship;" and in this way many a quiet 

 little village develops into a prosperous town, which in 

 due time has its railway station, and its provost and 



* Walter White, " Eastern England," i. 145-147. 

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