The Half Way House 
covered as well by many rows of flakes, and from 
it a fine view of the wild coast is obtainable. 
The dwelling-houses of Neils Harbour were 
miserable shanties, many of them more like 
temporary shelters than permanent homes. 
Most of them stood on the hillside, and the 
upper ones were reached by a path through the 
dooryards of those lower down. Poor and 
mean as they were outside, they were yet worse 
inside. The rooms were painfully bare, even 
the hitherto never-failing rugs being absent in 
most of them. Compared to them, the simple 
cottages of the Highlanders seemed abodes of 
luxury. The people are so desperately poor 
because there is no farming land at all, and 
there is no work obtainable but the very un- 
certain labour of fishing in the sea. They get 
very little for the fish they catch, not even as 
much as they are worth, we were told ; for 
here, as elsewhere in remote country places, 
the wealth of the people flows into the coffers 
of the local storekeeper. He sets his own 
price on what they bring him and too fre- 
quently pays in merchandise of his own im- 
portation, so that often the poor fisher-folk 
receive no money at all for their labour. 
269 
