Morning journal and courier., 1892-05-21
wAKEMAN,s wANDERINGs.

wAKEMAN,s wANDERINGS. Scottish Fishermen-Those of New haven, the East and West Scottish Coasts, and the Orkney and Shet' land Islands Entertainingly De.
 scrtbed-Their Home Surrounding,
 and SuperstitIons.
 EDINBURGH, Scotland, May 9. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 have been much among Scottish fisher men, both in their homes ashore and in their cabins at sea; and can never recall them save in pictures of vivid and color ful setting. Simultaneously all these pie lures seem to blend in one.
 There are the red roofs, the breezy shores, the gleaming 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 and the screaming 6shwives of Newhaven; the almost somber silence ever breeding above the piers of Buck Haven; the rocky walls, the steely blue of the German ocean, the awful storms and the great dingy, cheerless fishing towns of the east coast, from Aberdeen to Thurso; the brown orsgs. the emerald slopings and the shad- owy, moanfnl Assures of the Shetland and Orkney shores, with their Dutch and Morse color in faces and ways; the drear, gray rocks and puffn-hsunted crags of the mis- ty Mcbride, where the brave, half-starved crofter-fsher battles all his life for mere existence; and the low and sunny shores of the Solway where, at the very thresh- old of Burns land blythe songful Nth, underneath the shadows of hoary Criffel's rim, the roaring of the approaching Sol- way tides tells the border fshwives to be alert with their creels for their Hsher hus- bands coming.
 On the east and west, ses-walls of sub limity, tide-ploughed friths, shore-resches of barrenness and desolation. Sea-gulls hover and whirl and scream. Skeleton craft bleach in storm and wind. Every thing speaks of searage, 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-wslls where the tide is ever sobbing in it's ebb and flow. Here a fishing station; there drear hamlet. Wonder a gravelly beach, with fsh-curers and their sodden toll. Beyond, weird gio with herd of drowsy seals turning their shining sides to the low, red sun.
 Over all, filmy, dreamy presence; for the suns rays in the best of weather filter through veils of mist upon these shore side toilers all their simple, sluggard lives. Through all the cutting of sharp winds, the driving of almost bsrbed rain, the splash and swirl of salty. stinging spray.
 These are the physical features of the picture. Threading in and through 1t all with a sturdy life and coloring are the fish CT men and fisher wives of Scotland. I always see these men something after the mold and figure of Dickens hero, Daniel Peggotty; larger of frame may be; and in the place of his aspect of benignity and resolution, look in their faces of melan thing which for want of better term may be called brave and defiant dread.
 No braver folk live. Upon the decks of their smack, schooners or fiddle shaped 'tsixerms," their hardihood and daring upon the stormy German ocean, among the mist hid dangers of the sounds and lochs of the Hebrides, or when battling with the fierce tides of the Orkney, Shetland and Farce island, often reach a positive sub limity of heroism. But believe a no more restless, unhappy lot ever lived ashore.
 This is on account of those strange. iron framed, barb-tongued creatures who town" them; the irrepressible, tireless, fadeless women, who, the moment they become wives, not only assume all functions of management and command, but who stcIe and dole out every penny of the Scottish fishers' earnings to the last 'bawbee;" who transact all business; originate and assert all homeside ethics; set the pace in mat ters of "kirk' and religion; and whose tongues from the day of bridal to that of burial are never silent, and are ever more stinging than the lash.
 Generally speaking all east and north coast fisher folk fare better in their homes than those of the west coast, who chiefly comprise the crofter-fsher class, barring the border fishermen of the southwest from Aver around to Amman along the latter are often cottiers, and have comfort able homes with well-kept gardens, and are altogether the snuggest and hsppiesr lot of all.
 Four classes of Scottish fisher homes may be cited as most typical-those of the Newhaven folk, who find a never failing market 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 esst-cosst folk from Aberdeen north past Peterhead, Fra serbu-gh, Banff, Inverness and Wick; of the fishers of the Orkney. Shetland and To1a onI of tho araftor Gsha of Skye, Lewis and Harris and of North and South Uist, in the H sbrides.
 Here at Newhaven & long, narrow street, with the oddest of little old houses, their street fronts almost hidden with rsmshsc- kle stairs, creels, fshing-gear, grandames and lassies batting the lines, runs parallel with the Forth. Into this, from the land side come scores of other short. narrow streets, in every one of which the same mass of fshing- gear, women and children are found. Here and there tiny old inns are hidden where the finest hsh-dinners in Britain are served.
 This principal street, called Main street, is open to the harborside, furnishing lit tie space in which all the business transac- tions of the Newhaven fishermen have been carried on for the past four hundred years. The harbor itself is not large. Its each walled side is but five hundred feet long, and 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 hills. Again upwards of a hundred craft are rocking idly with in the harbor walls.
 At these times the fish have been auc- tioned off and the fshwives, hundreds in number, are away in all haste to supply the tables of ''Auld Reekie." Their creels 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 car " one hundred and fifty pounds on their backs into Edinburgh.
 Unaccountable are the skirts they wear These fall just below the knees and two or three of the outer ones are gathered back over the launches in voluminous puffs. Stout woolen stockens, stout buckled shoes and a stout pea-jacket complete the raj ment; save that the married women wear handkerchief or "mutch" cap upon their heads; while the maiden fishwiyes go bare headed.
 While at their lsbors every article of their dress, save cap and shoes, is of coarse l. Il \. ,&.,E Il