278 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXXVII. 



east coast into which the boats can run if caught 

 in a storm and driven away from the safer parts 

 of the coast. If a heavily-laden herring boat is 

 overtaken by rough weather, it is very difficult to 

 get rid of the cargo quickly enough to escape being 

 swamped. In fact the throwing them overboard is 

 a long operation ; and sometimes when they have a 

 lucky haul, they load until the gunwale of the boat 

 is but a few inches above the water. In this case 

 the shipping of a single wave is sufficient to swamp 

 them. A cargo of large fish, such as cod or skate, 

 may be thrown overboard with some degree of 

 quickness — not so a cargo of herrings. 



Although the months of July and August gene- 

 rally pass over without any very dangerous weather, 

 September is frequently a season of sudden squalls 

 and storms on our coasts. 



This year, 1848, one of these sudden storms 

 came on towards the end of the fishing season. 

 It reached from the north coast to near Sunderland, 

 beyond which place the wind was comparatively 

 light. The boats had gone out with a gentle 

 breeze, nor had there been any warning of bad 

 weather ; but before morning, on the east coast 

 alone, more than a hundred fishermen were drowned, 

 and the loss of boats, nets, &c., was immense. 

 Nothing could be more melancholily significant of 

 the havoc which that storm had caused than the 



