176 A GENERAL EXCITEMENT. 



of the excitement which animates the fishers themselves. 

 Every moment it seems as if the imprisoned host would 

 extricate themselves from the hands of their captors, as 

 some struggling fish leaps suddenly back into the water 

 with a splash. Surely the net cannot endure the strain 

 put upon it ! Or else the men, strong and brawny as 

 they are, will lose their hold ! But no ; the thing is 

 done and, in less time than you would suppose possible, 

 the scaly victims are heaped into the boat. 



On shore, meanwhile, all is expectation. From far 

 and near the population flock to assist in the profitable 

 labour. Young and old, miners and " bal-girls," are all 

 assembled, either to do a little bit of honest " gleaning " 

 for by standing near an unloading boat; it is easy to 

 pick a string of " windfalls " out of the water or to earn 

 a few pence by carrying to the bulkers. The boys who 

 take the fish along the boulder-pier and up to the yard, 

 receive threepence each journey ; the girls and women 

 who supply the bulkers, fivepence an hour. The gulls, 

 thronging the reefs with dusky wings, are also expectants ; 

 their share will be the broken fish, and the refuse of those 

 cleaned preparatory to being salted. 



As soon as the first boat reaches land, the work begins. 

 Boys and men stagger along under loaded baskets. These 

 are emptied into games, or hand-barrows, which the girls 

 wheel up to the bulking-houses. Then the bulkers, or 

 curers, carefully arrange the fish in rows, with their noses 

 outside, and between each row interpose a good layer of 

 salt. When the fish are piled up high enough, boards are 

 placed on the top., and kept down by heavy weights. 

 Then the oil begins to flow, or rather trickle " virgin 

 oil," the first outcome, much more valuable than the 



