300 GROWTH OF A FISHING VILLAGE. 



Such seascapes — for they look more like pictures than realities 

 — may be witnessed from the deck of the steamboat on the way 

 to Inverness or Ultima Thule. 



Looking from the steamer — if one cannot see the coast in 

 any other way — at one of these embiyo communities, one may 

 readily guess, from the fond attitude of the youthful pair who 

 are leaning on the old boat, that another cottage will speedily 

 require to be added to the two now existing. In a few years 

 there will be another ; in course of time the four may be eight, 

 the eight sixteen ; and lo ! iu a generation there is built a large 

 viUage, with its adult population gaining wealth by mining in 

 the silvery quarries of the sea ; and by and by we will see with 

 a pleased eye groups of youngsters splashing in the water or 

 gathering seaware on the shore, and old men pottering about the 

 rocks setting lobster-pots, doing business in the crustaceous deli- 

 cacies of the season. And on glorious afternoons, when the 

 atmosphere is pure, and the briny perfume delicious to inhale 

 — when the water glances merrily in the sunlight, and the sails 

 of the dancing boats are just filled by a capful of wind — the 

 people 'will be out to view the scene and note the growing 

 industry of the place j and, as the old song says — 



" weel may the boatie row, 

 And better may she speed ; 

 And muckle luck attend the hoat 

 That wins the balrnies' bread." 



In good time the little community wiU have its annals of births, 

 marriages, and deaths ; its chronicles of storms, its records of 

 disasters, and its glimpses of prosperity; and in two hundred 

 years its origin may be lost and the inhabitants of the original 

 village represented by descendants in the sixth generation. 

 At any rate, boats will increase, curers of herrings and 

 merchants who buy fish wiU. visit the village and circulate 

 their money, and so the place wiU thrive. If a pier should be 

 built, and a railway branch out to it, who knows but it may 

 become a great port ? 



I first became acquainted with the fisher-folk by assisting 

 at a fisherman's marriage. Marrying and giving in marriage 

 involves an occasional festival among the fisher-foEcs of New- 

 haven of drinking and dancing — and all the fisher-folks are 

 fond of the dance. In the more populous fishing towns there 

 are usually a dozen or two of marriages to celebrate at the close 



