Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-12-06

NH. wAkEmAN,s JoUnNEx1NGs.

At Burravoe, shetland - Everyday
Life of the People Engaged I'm Her
ring Fishing-Holne of the Fish.
Crofter-Their Food-How "Court-
fng'' is Accomplished - Pleasure
and Labor-ssWaulkingt the Cloth.',
BURRAvoE, Shetland, Oct. 10.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
: Having shown in my preceding article
the extraordinary Importance to Scotland
of her herring fisheries, an industry now
annually providing for the worlds food
supply over eleven hundred thousand bar
rels of cured herrings, some account of
the everyday life of the sixty or seventy
thousand people who practically devote
their lives to this one vocation, will be of
interest to American readers. Fiye-sixths
of all the herrings taken are landed with
in the seventeen fishing districts of the
east coast. Three-fourths of these are
taken off the Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, Ross,
Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney and Shet-
land shores; and of the fishermen and
fcurers' crews" requisite for labor in this
imperial domain of the herring, fully two
thirds come here every summer season
from the fsher-crofter hamlets of the
Scottish west coast, from all the contigu-
GUS coast-wise islands north of the Null of
Cantyre, from Syke, from Harris and Lew
is, from north and south Uist, and from
all the little ocean-girdled specks fringing
the outer Hebrides.
After these men and women return to
their western homes. in September, the
cred. These comprise oats, bit of sickly
grass for the hay of the 'sbeasties" in win
ter, potatoes and the universal Scotch
'fkail" or cabbage. Then the women take
to their knitting and land-looms, and if
there be winter herring g-fshing In the sea-
1ochs near their homes, this is prosecuted
by the mon in small open boats of eighteen
to twenty-five feet keel, at much bodily
risk and under tortuous seventies of wind
and weather. In these boats all the fire
they can have for cooking and warmth is
carried and kept in huge iron pots; and in
sleeping they tumble down anywhere in
their sea-clothing and oil skins and cover
themselves with rags or sails. If likely to
remain for time on the lochs they build
sod huts alongshore, thatching them with
"bracken," a COARSE fern also used in
thstching their homes. IF there be no
fishing the natives have little or nothing
to do from the "harvest" until March and
April, when tho cutting of sea-weed for
manure begins, and later, whom the annual
cutting of peats for fuel is done. Among
these primitive people the "rights" of wo-
men to at least labor were long since be-
yond gainsaying. ! have seen the hus-
band lift half-barrel (seventy poundsl
upon his wife's back and calmly walk
home beside her. In peat-cutting time,
when the days work is done, the husband
will throw the crooked wooden spade over
his shoulder, and the wife, gathering her
skirts into an ample sack, will carry some,
times for miles to the croft weight OF
peat for immediate use under which q
Highland sheltie would stagger. And my
friend, David NJ. Rosie, q fishery board of
ficer, to whom am indebted for much ex-
act information, tells me of an incident OF
sea-weed cutting where a crofter's wife,
with q rope tied about her waist, was low
cred over a crag to gather sea-weed among
the slippery, spume-covered rocks, while
her philosophic husband, safely ensconced
in q sunny cleft above, was quietly enjoy
| ing his pipe. But neither the Highland
! nor island crofter must be judged by oul
standards No human beings love theil
wives and homes more loyalty than they
All lowly classes following the sea or tn,
| lives of fishermen regard the mans labol
done when his vessel is anchored in port
or his fishing -buss is beachsd at the fish
| ing-hamlet shore; so that the fishing-crof
| ter and his spouse are contentedly tradi
tionally correct in their adjustment of Ia
Dor and duty.
The home of the western Highland an6
| island fisher-crofter is much inferior tc
| that of the east-coast fisherman or even oi
| the northern Highland crofter. Nearl,
/ all their cabins are built on line with tn,
{ slope of a brae or hillside, the rear roof
slope forming an obtuse angle. The WALL
are never more than six feet high, oftenel
but five; but they are frequently four fee
thick. They are built of round or rubbl,
stone. Some of the walls are double, will
a layer of earth between for additiona
warmth. The roof-beams rest on the mid
die of the walls, and are laid at the sam,
angle on three sides, with a lesser angle OF
the hillside incline. Some are neatl,
thatched with straw; but many are GOV
cred with bracken or heather. You cal
never effect an entrance to one of thes'
structures through the single door withou
pushing aside q cow, a sheep, or som,
manner of "beastie," sheltered in the ca
pacious doorway or occupying a part o
the hut itself, meagerly partitioned off fo
byre. On entering You are nearly suffo
Gated with smoke. The place is dark
There are two or three small windows
Often there are none; small apertures
closed at night, admitting such light ant
air as can penetrate. The fire is seldor
allowed to go out, and when not blazin
brightly in use smokes and smudgss fror
a slight depression in the center of tn
floor, precisely as in Sioux Indian
teepe. Some of these fire-places, if the
may be SO called, are built in little stor
troughs, and fat slabs of stone surroun
them. Immediately above the fire, in th
center of the roof, is an aperture in whic
is set a half-barrel, or other device to al
swer the place of stove-pipe or chimne.
The smoke, after leisurely pilgrimag'
about the cabin, finds its chief exit her
,, The roof is black as night from smoke d
posits, and here and there on the poles
glistening, oily substance, from the moi
. ture in the thatch and the action of Il
peat smoke, is forming into tiny globul
/, ready for dropping; and whatever thu
fall upon is ndehbly stained. An lrt
J chain hanging from the roof supports Il
E huge round iron pot in which the potatoe
! the porridge and the kail-brose are cooke
' while the universal teapot and bannoc
pan or griddle stand endless guard best
the fire. One room usually comprises t
= interior; although a bedroom with its 70
: slanting down to the very ground, will c
casionaIly be found. The furniture is
odd tumble of ancient oak and later-d
: things in varnish; cloudy delphi and RAJ
! ant china; olden iron and pewter a.
! cheap timed utensils; Gaelic wood
n "msthers" and Brumagem things whi
! sRine. There are square hunks for be
: in which whole family can repose; gen
\ inc antiques here and there such as m
often be found in the lowly homes of Br
n tany; trundle-beds which are hidden
4 meath larger ones by day, and do servi
: anywhere by night; and here and the
i the sea-faring instinct mas caused the r
n ging of harnmocks from rotten nets,