126 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



curers, coopers, hawkers, ice-manufacturers, etc., 

 are employed (for instance, out of the 20,000 

 hands employed in the Shetland herring fishing 

 last summer, 11,000 have been at sea, and 9,120 

 have been employed on shore, of whom 7,560 

 were women), not to mention the large number 

 of railway employees who are engaged in the 

 transfer of a very perishable article. Anyone 

 who has visited Lowestoft during the herring 

 season must have been impressed by the number 

 of Scotch women, amounting to some thousands, 

 which come South in special trains to gut the fish. 



The capital invested in steamers, sailing-boats 

 and gear of all kinds is estimated at more than 

 11,000,000. The fishing industry is further of 

 great importance to the country as a training 

 ground for sailors and marine engineers, and it 

 affords a means of livelihood to a vigorous and 

 independent population. 



Like any other industry, sea-fishing is liable 

 to arbitrary fluctuations. For instance, there 

 was a partial failure in the herring fishery in 1906 

 on the North and North-East of the Shetlands. 

 The total number of crans landed being 438,950, 

 as against 632,000 the year before, a record one, 

 and some of the Shetlanders have been hard 



