Morning journal and courier., 1891-03-14

tire inhabitants, divided into four bands, labored day and night for months, and Yarmouth was saved. The seventh har- bor done, it has since stood, the greatest monument to human pluck and invincibil- ity that can be found in all Britain to-day
 One cannot help having an admiration and affection for men made out of this sort of stuff; and to know them in their humble homes, in their haunts and resorts kof the quaint old town, and in their dan gerous toll of gathering the harvests of the deep, is to possess a long-remembered pleasure and delight. Their methods of fishing vary little at tine present time from those in vogue for the past hundreds of years; save that the little open boats for merly in use have been supplanted by fine decked smacks: as is true with the fisher men of the entire British coasts, barring those of the west and northwest Irish is lands, where the ancient curragh, or skin keeled canoe, is still in use. Though long line and deep-sea fishing is prosecuted by many the year round, and during the winter months under the most perilous circumstances known to any fishermen on the globe, the paramou interest at Var mouth, from the fisherman's standpoint, is centered in the herring fisheries of this coast. These made Yarmouth. They sus- tained the city and its citizens At the present time it is reckoned that the city increases its population three-fold, and houses sixty thousand souls during the
 'season," {" two thirds of this number being drawn here solely by the herring industry
 Again, this number is doubled by excur- sionists and seaside loiterers from the near manufacturing cities, and even from far away London itself: So that from June un- til September it is no uncommon thing for
 Yarmouth to hold from one hundred to one hundred and twenty thousand people
 Now of old the merchants of Var mouth, LOwestoft, GOrleston and other near ports fit out large decked boats of from fifty to eighty tons burthen, the Var mouth and near coast fleet numbering per haps fifteen hundred of these vessels. Each one is manned with a master mate hawseman, waleman, net-rope man, net slower and about half a dozen laborers or "capstern-men." All these engage to serve during the season. al stipulated wages, with an allowance of a certain sum in money, for every last of herripgs taken, to the master, mate, hawseman and waleman; some vessels engaging with this allowance to each vessel, the allowance be- ing divided by the entire crew, share and share alike" A last of herring is the
 Yarmouth standard of reckoning It comprises ten barrels of fish. Another method of computing the Hast" where the fish are sold out of the boat. is to count out thirteen thousand two hundred herrings. The vessels are victualled by the owners, and are also provided with several tons of salt For the herrings taken at Yarmouth are disposed of in an entirely different manner from those se- cured by the Scottish and Shetland fishers. The latter sell their takes immediately to ''curers," who, at stations" alongshore
 pickle" the herring according to the old Dutch method, in barrels, which, after re- ceiving government inspection and brand, are shipped to the continental market. All the herring taken along the east of England coast are marketed at Yarmouth, and are either shipped fresh, in carload lots, to the London fshmonGers, or are transformed by salting and smoking into ''Yarmouth bloaters," for shipment to all parts of the world in the little pine boxes, which from time immemorial have adorned grocery-store windows. Every boat is furnished with about one hundred nets, each of which is twenty-one yards long and about twenty-five feet deep. These are fastened in length to "war- rope" by cords which the men call seasons, each of which is eighteen feet in length. The nets are fioated by cOrks, and the "war-ropes" by tubs, or buoys. The trade affords the principal means of subsistence ! to about three thousand fishermen, six | thousand braiders, beetsters, towers, riv- | CTS, ferrymen, carpenters, caulkers, etc, | besides the number of seamen employed
 in carrying the fish to foreign markets, and the commercial class engaged in con- ducting the gigantic industry; as well as partial support to fully twenty thousand people iron: the North Countrie," " and | near provincial districts, variousiy em- | ployed at odds al Il ends of labor connect | ed with the herring fishing during the | height of its season.
 A night with the Yarmouth herring | fleet is repiete with interest and often with | eXcitaWent. On more than one occasion | have been rocked ill the cradle of the North sea in no gentle fashion aboard these her | ring smacks, but great storms during the l herring season are rare exceptions. About | four o'clock in the afternoon the mass Jf | smacks along the Juays begin to swarm | with men: and half the city folk. after m | old custom, struggle up and down the | quavs to witness the daily departure of the fleet. Nou will find each crew particular | ly busy laying on the nets. that is, fold ing them in q great level pile in the hold. | This is a work of the greatest nicety, SC | that when the nets are "shot, or cast into | the sea they do not become cutangled | While being laid on" inc nets are joined
 together by knotting the back ropes e;
 each net. The buoys are at the same tim, | attached. While three men are engaged | ill this folding, one attaches the sinkeri
 and another is busted folding the back | rope This done. one by one the fleet
 hundreds Upn': hundreds of these smacks
 drift gently ont of the GHTe-mouth, and
 thence across the Yarmouth Roads, intS
 the open sea. As the twilight falls tn, old city sinks from sight into its sand I a. ss,-Es DssaTH la Eaa
 bright colors from the thousands of pleas
 ura seekers along the beach, graduall!
 merged into a line of rose above another
 of white these blend into a ribbon oi
 purple: and then the city lights show like
 faint, far stars lying across the horizon
 beneath the darkeming purples of the west
 ern sky, the Yarmouth beacon light blaz
 ing brightly above, alongside St. Nichols':
 grim square tower To the north and
 south, from the east shore ports, it seem,
 as though a thousand other sail had me
 us there: all floating between the dark wa
 ters and the paler eastern horizon sky lik'
 a myriad fowl resting silently upon
 vast expanse of sea.
 But all these thousand or more smack
 are moving: each gently tacking here an'
 there for suitable fishing ground. Her
 and there sails are being furled and mast
 lowered, denoting that the business of thu
 night with the great fleet. manned by per
 haps eight thousand men, has already be
 gun. Soon it comes our turn. Net afte
 net flies over the side, HIS we float with tn tide, trailing at least g mile behind us
 like Il majestic Sea serpent, the corks an' . buoys dancing on the waters farther thal the eye can reach Then the cook calls II below to the .'den' for supper. \ quee little place it is. One can hardly stan
 upright in it. On either side are the sleep ing berths for a crew of eight. There is good American stove, nn which the sup | T : 5 E~>EFENN il