192 NOTHING BUT HEEKING. 



Having visited Wick in the veiy heat of the season, and for 

 the express purpose of gaining correct information about this im- 

 portant branch of our national industry, I am enabled to offer a 

 slight description of the place and its appurtenances. Travellers 

 by the steamboat usually arrive at the very time the " herring- 

 drave " is making for the harbour ; and a beautiful sight it is to 

 see the magnificent fleet of boats belonging to the district, radiant 

 in the light of the rising sun, all steadily steering to the one 

 point, ready to add a large quota to the wealth of industrial 

 Scotland. As we wend our way from the little jagged rock at 

 which we are landed by the small boat attendant on the steamer, 

 we obtain a glimpse of the one distinguishing feature of the 

 town — the herring commerce. On aU. sides we are surrounded 

 by herring. On our left hand countless basketfuls are being 

 poured' into the immense gutting-troughs, and on the right hand 

 there are countless basketfuls being carried from the three or 

 four hundred boats which are ranged on that particular side of 

 the harbour ; and behind the troughs more basketfuls are being 

 carried to the packers. The very infants are seen studying the 

 " gentle art ; " and a little mob of breechless boys are busy 

 hooking up the sUly " poddlies." All around the atmosphere ia 

 humid ; the sailors are dripping, the herring-gutters and packers 

 are dripping, and every thing and person appears wet and 

 comfortless ; and as you pace alopg you are nearly ankle-deep in 

 brine. Meantime the herrings are being shovelled about in the 

 large shallow troughs with immense wooden spades, and with 

 very little ceremony. Brawny men pour them from baskets 

 on their shoulders into the aforesaid troughs, and other brawny 

 men dash them about with more wooden spades, and then sprinkle 

 salt over each new parcel as it is poured in, tUl there is a suffi- 

 cient quantity to warrant the comjnencement of the important 

 operation of gutting and packing. Men are rushing wildly about 

 with note-*books, making mysterious-looking entries. Carts are 

 being fiUed with dripping nets ready to hurry them off to the 

 fields to dry. The screeching of saws among bUlet-wood, and 

 the plashing of the neighbouring water-wheel, add to the great 

 babel of sound that deafens you on every side. Flying about, 

 blood-bespattered and hideously picturesque, we observe the 

 gutters ; and on all hands we may note thousands of herring- 

 barrels, and piles of bUlet-wood ready to convert into staves 

 At first sight every person looks mad — some appear so from 

 their costume^ others from their manner — and the confusion seems 



