The Sun.
London, England, 1830-11-19 00:00:00

RESULTS OF THE HERRING FISHERY

SEASON, 1E330.

(From the _Dumfries Courier.)

The ocean yields its haivest as well as the land ;
and having watched with great anxiety the progress
of the one► we think it right to bestow some atten-
tion on the other. Since salmon became so scarce
and dear, the comfort of the lower orders depends
greatly on the plentifulness of the two cheapest or-
ticks of food—herrings and potatoes—and when we
consider how many hearths the binn and the barrel
contribute to gladden, it is impossible not to com-
miserate the situation of the poor, when any defi-
ciency occurs in the supply of either. An average
take of herrings for the whole of Scotland is com-
puted at 400,000 barrels—the tribute of innumer-
able bays, sounds, ollings, estuaries, friths, and lakes.
The value in money is not much under half a mil-
lion steeling; and if we except the cooper and the
curer's profits, nearly the whole proceeds find their
way into the pockets of the most hardy class of his
Majesty's subj:cts. Independently of this, large
quantities of herrings are consumed in a fresh state,
particularly on the west coast of Scotland, and
though we have no means of calculating on the
exact proportion, it is undoubtedly the reverse of
inconsiderable. To take only one example of the
benefit conferred by the trade on particular places,
we may state that 21,000 barrels of herrings were
cured at Peel and other parts of the Isle of Man, in
the year 1823, and about 12,000 consumed on the
spot, or run to Liverpool in a fresh state, without
the slightest deterioration of quality. The estimated
value, bounty included, amounted to 50,0001.—a
mighty item certainly, as compared with the limits,
general exports, and population of Mona, and which,
in a certain sense, from the peculiar channels in
which it flowed, was just • so much found money to
the islanders, The fact cannot be too often stated,
that the earth and the waters are the original sources
of all we enjoy, and it is delightful to see the Manx-
man, or arty other islander, similarly situated, wrest-
ing real wealth from an element which, in enriching
others to the most limitable extent, is left none the
poorer itself, and which, if such a phrase be
at all admissable, can hardly be exhausted by
over-cropping. In some parts of the Highlands,
the benefits that flow from the herring fishery
are perhaps still more remarkable ; and amidst
the frowning glories of Ben-Lomond and Ben-
Voirlich, with a hundred dim and distant hills
in the rear—the blue waters of a navigable lake—the
islands that stud its bosom, like oases in the desert
—the historic associations which memory recalls—
it is impossible not to recur to the moral world, and
if this is done in the spirit of philanthropy, what
spectacle can be more agreeable than to see Janet in
the strati), and Donald in the bay—the one catching
his contingent of fish—the other garnering her allot-
ment of hay, and both supported by the pleasing
consciousness, that their united industry, however
small the scale, will make the winter months pass
more cheerily away. Above and around flocks of
sheep and herds of kine, with patches of crop
creeping up the bleakest mountain's side, remind the
spectator of the real wealth of the Llighlandsond of the
uses to which even heather may be turned, in feeding
the multitudinous mouths of the British metropolis;
and the crowning reflection of all is, that the gene-
ral progress of cultivation, and the increased facili-1
ties of communication have increased wonderfully
the means of subsistence, knit in closer affinity the
human family, and, in the fair spirit of commercial
exchange, enable the remotest glen or smith to lend
a helping hand to cities and towns. With these
general observations, we proceed to give an account
of the herring fishery—season 18:30—from sources
we deem next to official.

At Wick, and adjacent ports, the greatest of all
the stations, the fishing ermine Iced in the end of
July, and with some trifling interruptions continued
till the first week in September. The fleet, which
it was beautiful to see afloat, in divisions, courting
the first breezes of morn, consisted of 1,500' boats,
manned with from four to six men each; and as
four and a half may be taken .as the average, we
leave it to the intelligent reader to calculate the
total number of mariners who were thus congre-
gated at one point, and occupied, often from morning
till night, in dragging wealth from the great :deep.
The take, upon the whole, was above an average one
and may be stated in round numbers, at 345,000
cranes, or 230 ditto to each boat, price, exclusive of
perquisites and bounty by the curers, 10s. to 10s. 6d.
per crane. Instances occurred in which particular
boats secured 4 and even 500 cranes; still these
instances were rare, and according to our method of
reckoning, though the parties reaped proportional
profit, merely go to swell the general results. At
all the smaller harbours on the Caithness coast, the
take was equally abundant, and the range of prices
exactly the same. At Helmsdale, in Sutherland-
shire, the boatmen made an excellent use of their
time, and may farther boast of the marked supe-
riority of the herrings caught. Commencing at
Port Maholmack, including Crotearty in a different
county, and stretching along the coast to Buff and
Fraserburgh, the boats on the whole were indif-
ferently fished, owing, we believe, to the prevalence
of breezes from the, north and north-west. At
Peterhead, excellent shoals were met with; but
from the inadequate supply of casks and salt, the
golden opportunity was in some measure lost. But
it is a bad wind that blows nobody 'good, and from
the lack of curing materiel, the country wives got
their barrels and other utensils crammed with fish,
almost, we may say, on their own terms, and in
exchange for eggs, butter, cheese, or such other
articles as they chose to supply. At Montrose,
John's Bead, and Bervie, less business was done
than usual; but whether from the weather, or the
shyness of the shoals, we have no means of ascer-
taining. From the points just named we must strike
right across to the Frith of Forth—a movement
which is easily made on paper—and thus conclude
our rapid survey of the maitiland line of fishing
stations on the nether side of Cape Wrath. At
Dunbar and Eyetnouth,; the fortune of the boatmen
was very various, and induced some of them to re-
gret that they had not moved further from home;
but a dense population and contiguOus markets gave
such a fillip to the retail part of the trade, that upon
the whole they were well rewarded fur their labour.
In the Orkney Islands the take, which was on a
har with that of Wick, is considered the best that
as occurred for years. In that "emote quarter, the
Ultima Thule of Scotland, where the men are all
brave, and the women mostly fair, the nautical is
the only active life; and we need hardly add, that
extended intercourse with the world around them
hasprodoced &wonderful revolution in the opinions,
habits, and Mariners of 'the people. Voltaire some-
, where sarcastically remarks that while the Pottu-
guese sailors, beforcentering battle, fall prostrate on
deck, and implore their saints to perform miracles in
their favour, the British tare stand to their guns,
and work miracles for themselves. And it is even
so with the men of Orkney. In place of palavering
with cunning jaggers (pedlars), they now read
newspapers like other people ; " Norna," and her
nonsense have been thrown overboard; nostrums
from the " Fitful Head " are no longer a marketable
commodity ; vrarlockry is at a discount, knowledge
at a premium ; and in every scene of difficulty
and danger the charm of charms is found to
consist in stout hearts and willing arms, with
one little appliance to boot, by way of a substi-
trite for the quondam bags of witch-wind—a pocket
pistol loaded with excellent mountain dew, by far
the best corrective of the fogs of a dim and distant
ocean. Hence the success of the truly hardy in-
habitants of Orkney, and hence the rich harvest of
fins which will this year enrich the whole island, and
tell on the comforts of the meanest cottager. We regret
to add that their neighbours, the Shetlanders, were
less fortunate. From the bad weather that pre-
vailed
making t this
i their beginning,
appearance--a
some of the curers from the place in despair of doing
any good. Afterwards the fishing was very tolerable,
though the season .was short, and the supply under
an average on .the whole.
In the North-west Highlands, including the He.