Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-12-07
HERRING FISHERIES.
Everyday Life OF People Who Deyote
Their Time to this One Vocation.
Universal Integrity, Honesty, Loyalty and
Hospitality OF the Crofter and Fisher
Folk OF Scotland.
lCopYrirht, 1870.

the extraordinary importance to Scotland
OF her herring fisheries, o. industry now
annually providing for the world 8 food
supply over LOO 200 barrels of cured
behring's, some account OF the everyday
life of the GO, 900 or 20, 900 people who
practically devote their lives 10 this one
vocation, will be OF interest to American
readers. Five-sixths of ell the herrings
taken are landed within the seventeen
fishing districts of the east coast. Three
fourths of these are taken off the Aber-
deeu, Banff, Elgin, Ross, Sutherland,
Caithness, Orkney and Shetland shores;
and of the fishermen aud ''curers'-
crews' requisite for labor in this I'M
perial 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
contiguous coastwise Islands north of tbs
Null of Cantyre from Syke, from Harris
and Lewis, from North and South list.
aud from all the little 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
sickly grass for the hay of the
'beasties' in winter, potatoes and the
universal Scotch :kaii'' or cabbage.
Then the women take to their knitting
and hand looms, aud if there be winter
herring fishing in the sea lochs near their
homes, this is prosecuted BY the men in
small open boats of eighteen TO twenty
two 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 i'll huge iron pots; and in sleep
ing they tumble down anywhere in their
sea clothing aud oil skins and cover
themselves with rags or sails. II likely
TO remain for time on the lochs, they
build sod huts along shore, thathcing
them with "bracken, coarse fern
also used in matching their homes. II
there be no hshlug, the
natives have little or nothing to
do from the "harvest' until
March and April, when the cutting of
seaweed for manure begins, and later,
when the annual cutting of peats for fuel
10 done. Among these primitive people
the '.rights' of women 10 at least labor
were long since beyond gainsaving. L
have seen the husband lift q half-barrel
(seveuty ponnds) 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
au ample sack, will carry sometimes for
miles 10 the croft a weight of peat for
Immediate use under which Highland
sheltie would stagger. And my friend,
David Nj. Rosie, fishery board officer
to whom am indebted for much exact
information, tells me of an incident of
sea-weed cutting where crofter's wife,
with rope tied about her waist, was
lower over q crag TO gather sea-weed
among the slippery, spume-covered
rocks, while her philosophio husband,
safely ensconced in sunny cleft
above, was quietly enjoying 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 lives OF
Il hermen regard the man 8 labor done
when his vessel Is anchored Ill port, or
his fishlng-bus is beached at the fishing
hamlet shore; 80 that the tishlng-crofter
and his spouse are contentedly tradition
ally correct in their adjustment OF labor
and duty.
The home of the Western Highland
and Island fab orOfter is much inferior
TO thntof the east coast fishermen or even
of the Northern Highland crofter. Nearly
all their cabins are built on line with
the slope of brae or hillside, the rear
roof-slope forming an obtuse angle.
The walls are never more than six feet
high, oftener but FIVE; but they are fire.
uuently four feet thick. They are built
of round or rubble stone. Some Of the
walls are double, with layer OF earth
between for additional warmth. The
roof beams rest OH the middle of the
walls, and are laid on the same angle on
three sides, with a lesser angle on the
hillside iurlipe. 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 COW,
sheep, or some manner of 'beastie,
sheltered in the cnpacious doorway or
Occupying part OF the hut itself. mea-
gerry partitioned off for byre. On en-
tering you are nearly suffocated 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 and air
as can penetrate. The fire is seldom al
low ed to go out, and when not blazing
brightly in use. smokes and smudges
from a slight depression in the center of
the floor, precisely as O Sioux Indians
tepee. Some of these fire-places, il
they may be 40 called, are built in little
stone trouehs, and fat slabs of
stone surround them. lmmedi-
ateiy above the fire, in the center
OF the roof, is an aperture in " hich is
set half barrel, or other device to an
swer the place Of stovepiDe or CHM
ney. The smoke, after leisurely pill
grimages about the cabin. tinds its chief
exit here. The roof IS black as night |
from smoke deposits, and here and there |
on the poles a giistenipg, oily substance, !
from the moisture in the thatch and the |
action of the peat smoke, Ia formed into |
,inv globules ready for dropping; and |
whatever they fall upon Is indelibiy !
stained. An iron chain hanging from |
the roof supports the huge round iron |
pot in which the potatoes, the porridge |
and the kali brose are cooked; while the ]
universal teapot and banuok pan or grid |
t,<x-a Il fRn