CHAPTEE IX. 



THE HEREIIirG FISHERY. 



The Herring Fisheries- — The Lochfyne Fishery — The Pilchard — Herring 

 Commerce — Mr.. Methuen^-The Brand — The Herring Harvest — A 

 Night at the Fishing — The Cure — The Curers — Herring Boats — In- 

 crease of Netting — ^Are we OTcrfishing ? — Proposal for more Statistics. 



The fisheries for the common herring, the pilchard, and the 

 sprat, are carried on, with a brief interval, all the year round ; 

 but the great herring season is during the autumn — from 

 August to October — when the sea is covered with boats in pur- 

 suit of that fine fish, and ia some of its phases the hening-fishery 

 assumes an aspect that is decidedly picturesque. Every little 

 bay all roimd the island has its tiny fleet ; the mountain-closed 

 lochs of the Western Highlands have each a fishery ; while at 

 some of the more important fishing stations there are very large 

 fleets assembled — as at Wick, Dunbar, Ardrishaig, Stornoway, 

 Peterhead, and Anstruther. The chief curers have places of 

 business in these towns, where they keep a large store of curing 

 materials, and a competent staff of coopers and others to aid them 

 in their business. Such boats as do not carry on a local flshery 

 proceed from the smaller fishing-villages to one or other of the 

 centres of the herring trade. In fact, wherever an enterprising 

 curer sets up his stand, there the boats will gather round him ; 

 and beside him will collect a crowd of all kinds of miscellaneous 

 people — dealers in salt, sellers of barrel-staves, vendors of "cutch," 

 Prussian herring-buyers, comely girls from the inland districts to 

 gut, and men from the Highlands anxious to ofiBciate as " hired 

 hands." Itinerant ministers and revivalists also come on the 

 scene and preach occasional sermons to the hundreds of devout 

 Scotch people who are assembled ; and thus arises many a pros- 

 perous little town, or at least towns that might be prosperous 

 were the finny treasures of the sea always plentiful. As the 



