160 



A GENERAL EXCITEMENT. 



magistrates, and everything respectable about it. " As 

 the chief herring-season comes on, a kind of madness 

 seizes on all engaged, ever so remotely, in the trade ; as 

 for those more immediately concerned, they seem to go 



A FISHING-VILLAGE. 



completely ' daft,' especially the younger hands. The old 

 men, too, come outside to view the annual preparations, 

 and talk, with revived enthusiasm, to their sons and 

 grandsons about what they did twenty years agone ; the 

 young men spread out the shoulder-of-mutton sails of their 

 boats, to view and repair defects ; and the wives and 

 sweethearts, by patching and darning, contrive to make 

 old nets l look amaist as weel as new ; ' boilers bubble 

 with the brown catechu, locally called ' cutch/ which is 

 used as a preservative for the nets and sails ; while all 

 along the coasts old boats are being cobbled up, and new 

 ones are being built and launched." 



