The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-12-07
THE HERRING FISHERS.
Every Day Life Of the Scottish Peo-
pie Who Follow This
Vocation.
An Equal Adjustment of Labor
Between the Men and
Women.
Picturesque Descriptions of the Rude
Homes of the Hardy Western High
landers ON the Hills

Especial Correspondence of TIE INDEPENDENT.
BURRAvoE, Shetland, Oct. 1O.-Havini
shown in my preceding article the extraor
binary importance to Scotland of her her
ring fisheries, an industry now annually
providing for the worlds food supply owe
100000 barrels of cured behring's, some &C
count of the every day life of the GO.00O OF
10000 people who practically devote theil
lives to this one vocation, will be of inter
est to American readers. Five-sixths of al
the behring's taken are landed within the
seventeen fishing districts of the east coast
Three-fourths of these are taken off the
Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, Ross, Sutherland,
Caithness, Orkney and Shetland shores; and
of the fishermen and ''curers' crews re-
quisite for labor in this imperial domain
of the herring, fully two-thirds come here
every summer season from the fsh-crofter
hamlets of the Scottish west coast,
from all the contiguous coast
wise islands north of the Null of Cantyre,
from Syke, from Harris and Lewis. from
north and south Uist, and from all the lit
tie ocean girdled specks fringing the outer
Hebrides
After these men and women return to
their western homes, in September, the
crops of their little crofts are to be gath
cred. These comprise oats, bit of sickly
grass for the hay of the 'beasties'' in win
ter, potatoes and the universal Scotch
''kail'' for cabbage. Then the women take
to their knitting and land-looms, and if
there be winter herring fishing in the sea-
lochs near their homes, this is prosecuted
by the men in small open boats of 10 to %
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 car
ried and kept in huge iron pots; and in
sleeping they tumble down anywhere in
their clothing and oil. skins and cover
themselves with rags or sails. If likely to
remain for time on the lochs, they build
sod huts alongshere, matching them with
"bracken," coarse fern also used in
matching their homes. If there be no fish
ing. the natives have little or nothing to do
from the harvest until March or April,
when the cutting of seaweed for manure
begins, and later, when the annual cutting
of peats for fuel is done. Among these
primitive people the "rights" of woman to
dG l0fshV ldDOI were lOIIS 6lIC0 OoyOuu gun
saying. l have seen the husband lift a
half-barrel go pounds) upon his wife's
back and calmly walk home beside her. In
peat-cutting time, when the days work ia l
done the husband will throw the crooked
wooden spade over his shoulder, and the
an m ample saok. will carry asa sometimes s fop
miles to the croft weight of peat for
immediate use under which High
land sheitie would stagger. And
my friend, David N. Rosie. a fishery board
act information, tells me of an incident Of
sea-weed cutting where crofter's wife, !
with rope tied about her waist, was low
cred over crag to gather sea-weed among
the slippery, spume-covered rocks, while
her phllosophic husband, safely ensconced
in a sunny cleft above. was quietly enjoy
ing his pipe. But neither the Highland
nor Island crofter must be judged by our
standards. No human beings love their
wives and homes more loyalty than they.
All lowly classes following the sea or the
done when his vessel is anchored in port,
or his tishingbuss is beached at the fish
ing hamlet snore; so that the fishing crotter
and his spouse are contentedly traditional
" correct in their adjustment of labor and
duty.
Island fsher-crofter is much inferior to
that of the east coast fisherman or even of
the northern Highland crofter. Nearly all
their cabins are built on a line with the
slope of brae or hillside, the rear roof
slope forming an obtuse angle. The walls
but five; but they are frequently four feet
thick. They are built of round or rubble
stone. Some of the walls are double, with {
q layer OF earth between for additional
warmth. The root-beams rest on the middle
OF the VALE, and are laid at the same angle
hrnr 1sl ~v,.A ~ /
hillside incline. Some are neatly matched {
with straw: but many are covered with
bracken or heather. You can never effect
an entrance to one of these structures ,
through the single door without pushing
aside a COW, sheep, or some manner of
'beastie," sheltered in the capacious !
The hut itself, meaeerly partoned
of for a byre. On entering
you are nearly suffocated with smoke. The
place is dark. There are two of three
small windows. Often there are none; !
small apertures, closed at night. admitting
such light and air as can penetrate. The
ire is seldom allowed to 20 out, and when I
not blazing brightly in use, smokes and {
,murgcs from slight depression in the
centre of the floor, precisely as in a Sioux ,
Indians teepe. Some of these tireplaces, if t
stone troughs, and fat slabs of stone l
them, Immediately above the 9
ire, in the centre of the roof, is an aperture
n which is set half-barrel, or other device *
% answer the place of a stove-pipe or Chin 1
aey. The smoke, after leisure pilgrim q
.ges about the cabin. finds its 9
,hief exit here. The roof is l
black as night from smoke de. a
,osits and here and there on the poles a
listening, oily substance, from the nois- y
ure in the thatch and the action of the II
,eat smoke, is forming into tiny globules 9
eady for dropping; and whatever they fall Z
lpon is indelibly stained. An iron chain a
hanging from the roof supports the huge V
ound iron pot in which the potatoes, the b
,orridge, and the kail-brose are cooked; n
While the universal teapot and hammock a
,an or griddle stand endless guard beside
he fire. One room usually comprises t.
he interior; although bedroom with G
Is roof elanting down to the very n
round, will occasionally be found. The
urniture is an odd tumble of ancient oak n
nd later-day things in varnish; cloudy G.
elph and radiant china; olden iron and v
ewter and cheap timed utensils; Gaelic r.
7oodeE "methers" and BrumaRem things Il
Thich shine. There are square hunks for e.
eds in which a whole family can repose: II
enuine antiques here and there. such as a
aay often be found in the IowIy homes of
Brittany; trundle beds. which are hidden
eneath larger ones by day and do service
nywhere by night: and here and there the ci
instinct has caused the rigging of
from rotten nets, or more inee-
ious ones still from lines aud barrel slaves. 81
reels and tubs are many and various. q