The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-05-22
Observation-Disclosures
SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT
SCOTTISH FISHERMEN.


Those OF Newhaven, the East and
West Scottish Coasts and the Orkney
and Shetland islands Entertainingly
Described - Their Home Surround
ings and Superstitions.
(Copyrioht.l
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, May al have
been much among Scottish fishermen. both
in their homes ashore and in their cabins at
sea; and can never recall them save in
pictures of vivid and colorful setting.
simultaneously all these pictures seem to
blend In one.
There are the red roofs, the breezy shores,
the cleaning sands and the tossing spray of
Coldingham and North Berwick, around to
the south of the mouth of the Forth; the
snug town and harbor, the quaint old
streets, the luscious fish dinners aud the
| screaming fshwives of Newhaven; the al-
most somber silence ever brooding above
the piers OF Buck Haven; the rocky
walls. the steely blue Of the German
| ocean, the awful storms and
she great dingy, cherries fishing
towns Of the east coast from Aberdeen to
| Thurso; the brown crags, the emerald slop-
the Shetland and Orkney shores, with their
Dutch and Morse color in faces and ways
| the drear, gray rocks and put!in-haunted
crsgs OF the misty Hebrides, where the
brave, half-staryed crofter- fisher battles all
| his life for mere existence; and the low and
\ sunny shores OF the Solway where, at the
very threshold of Burns land by the song
full NTH, underneath the shadows of hoary
| Crtffers rim, the roaring of the approaching
| Solway tides tells the border fishwives to be
alert with their creels for their fisher hus-
bands coming
On the east and west sea walls of sub
Unity, tide-plowed friths, shore reaches
OF barrenness and desolation. Seagulls
hover and whirl and scream. Skeleton
craft bleach in storm and wind. Every
thing speaks of sea rage, wrath and wreck.
| On the north, lands and islands without
| forests, split and serrated by the sea. Ire
| mendous precipices everywhere. Shadowy
"hellyers" cut the sea walls where the tide
is ever sobbing in its ebb and flow. Here a
| fishing station, there a drear hamlet.
Yonder a Rravely beach, with fishcurers
and their sodden toll. Beyond, weird gio
with herd of drowsy seals turning their
shining 81 les to the low, red sun.
Over all, a filmy, dreamy presence; for
| the suns rays in the best of weather filter
through wells of mist upon these shoreside
| tollers all their simple, sluggard lives.
the driving of almost barbed rain, the
splash and swirl Of salty. singing spray.
These are the physical features OF the
picture. Threading in and through it all
with sturdy life and colorng are the
fisher men and fisher wives of Scotland.
l always see these me N something after the
| mold aud figure Of Dickens hero, Daniel
| Peggotty; larger Of frame. may be; and in
| the place OF bic aspect of benignity and res
| olution, look in their faces Of melancholy
aud sternness, mingled with something
which, for want of better term, may be
called brave and defiant dread.
No drawer folk live. Upon the decks of
| their smack5, SchoOners or fiddle-shaped
''sixerms," their hardihood and daring upon
the stormy German ocean. among the mist
| hid dangers Of the sounds and locbs of the
| Hebrides, or when battling with the fierce
| tides of the Orkney, Shetland and Farce
| islands, often reach positive sublimity of
herolsm. But believe no more restless,
unhappy lot ever lived ashore.
This is on account of those strange iron
| framed, barb-tongued creatures who "own'
them; the irrepreosible, tireless, fadeless
| women, who, the moment they become
wives, not only assume all functions OF
management aud command, but who store
and dole out every penny Of the Scottish
| fishers earnings to the last "bawbee;" who
| transact all business; originate and assert
all homesde ethics; set the pace in matters
OF kirk" and religion; and whose tongues
| from the day of bridal to that of burial are
| never silent aud are ever more stin ging than
the lash.
Generally speaking ell east and north
| coast fisher folk fare better in their homes
| than those of the west coast, who chiefly
comprise the crofter-isher class, barring
the border fishermen OF the south vest from
| Ayr around TO Amman along the Firth Of
| Clyde and on Solway. The latter are often
cotters, and have comfortable homes with
well-kept gar lens and are altogether the
snuggest and happ;est lot of all.
Four classes OF Scottish fisher homes NAV
be cited as most typical-those of the New.
haven folk, who find never-failing mar
| ket for their fish here in Edinburgh as
| Newhaven is practically a continuation of
the city, east along the south bank of the
| Firth of Forth; of the east coast folk from
| Aberdeen north past Peterhead, Fraser
| burgh, Banff, Iverness and Wick; of the
| fishers of the Orkney, Shetland and Farce
Isles; and of the crofty-fi fishers Of Syke,
Lewis and Harris aud of North and South
| Uist, i'll the Hebrides.
Here at Newhaven a long, narrow street,
with the oldest OF little old houses their
| street fronts almost hidden with ramshackle
stairs, creels, fishing gear, grandames and
laSsies batting the lines, runs parallel with
the Forth. Into this, from the Landslide
come scores of other short, narrow streets
| in every one of which the same mass of
hshing-gear, women and children are found.
Here and there tiny old inns are hidden
where the finest f1sh-dinners In Britain are
served.
This principal street. called Main street,
is open to the harborside. furnishing little
space in which all the business transactions
of the Newhaven ifs ermen have been car
ried on for the past 400 years The harbor
itsef is not large. Its each walled side Is
but 500 feet long, aud it has but one little
entrance. Often you will find it without a.
single mast silhouette between you and the
horizon-line of the Fifeshire Mills Again
upward of a hundred craft are rocking
idly within the hnrbor walls.
At these times the fish have been auc-
toned off and the fshwives, hundreds in
number. are away IN all haste to supply
the tables Of Aud Reekie." Their oreels
or fish baskets contain from seventy TO
eighty pounds OF fish. These are carried
on their backs, and are held in place by
broad leather straps about the forehead.
The women have been known to thus
carry $50 pounds on their backs into Edin-