248 FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. CH. XVIII. 



along the shore and round the lochs. Near a fox's 

 hole in one of the woods I saw an almost incredible 

 collection of remains and disjecta membra of ducks, 

 turkeys, fowls, game of every kind, and even of 

 roe : apparently a litter of young foxes had been 

 brought up in it. 



On the 12th of July the Nairn herring-boats are 

 all launched to reap their uncertain harvest of her- 

 nngs. Of late years the supply does not seem to 

 be nearly so regular or so much to be depended on 

 as formerly ; and frequently the men are but badly 

 repaid for all their expense and risk. The cost of 

 a herring-boat here, complete with its rigging, nets, 

 &c., is not much less than ninety pounds ; and the 

 wear and tear of the nets is very great, owing to 

 bad weather and other causes : the hull alone of 

 the boat costs about twenty-seven pounds. There 

 are five men in each boat ; and Nairn alone sends 

 out about sixty boats, so that from that small place 

 not less than three hundred able-bodied men are 

 for six or seven weeks employed in the pursuit of 

 this small but valuable fish. The herrings are 

 generally bought up beforehand by the fish-curers 

 at Helmsdale, on the Sutherland coast, and at other 

 parts, who contract to take the whole proceeds of the 

 season's fishing at a fixed price ; so that notwith- 

 standing the immense number caught, the supply of 



