The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-04-02
THE BRITISH FISHERMEN.
Incidents Observed by Edgar l
Wakeman While Wandering
Among Them.
The Poet-Traveler's Mastery Pic,
lures Of British Coastwlse
Scene and Folk.
Face and Character Portrniture oil Patient
TOilcrs OF tho eea-CuriOns and Fam
ciful SuperstitionA.

Special Correspondence of The Independent.
LONDON. March m.-PilRriming in many
lands. l have been much among tho water
side folk-with the fishermen of Algiers.
who are q oonRlomerate race of Greeks. Ital-
ians. spaniards md Arabs; with tho fisher
men of SICILY. gloomy and voiccless ns Gipsy
dogs; with ChioRRian and Apulian fisher
men. those most majestic %slugRards OF all
Italy; with those of Barcelona, the giants OF
the south Of Spain; with Biscayan, Breton
and Cornish fishermen. supeEstitious and
Hodden above all others; with the brave,
kind men OF CladdaGh. at Galway. and
those along the wondrous Kerry coast; with
the stern yet tender fisher folk of Manx-
land; with the lazy fishermen of the dreamy
Azores, who, transferred to American coasts,
prove the most valuable recruits to our
esst-shore fishing fleets; with the c%ap-and-
tnsseled pescadores of Cuba. brieands NIL In
looks and ways; with the squatty Eskimos Of
the Labrador coast. satisfied with any
fruitnge Of the deep which will barely sus.
tain life; with the crofter-fsher of the
north Scottish md Shetland consts; and
with our W brave Gloucester men who
risk their lives upon the Grand banks, and
the 'Quoddy fishermen. whose chief quarry
is the herring. oil along the Maine coast to
the mist. wreatned crnRs of wild Manan.
In many years of intercourse with these
lowly folk I awe been continually im-
pressed with the almost indefnable and
wholly indescribable sadness that seems to
brood over and among all this class of peo-
pie. 1t ia in their cabins and homely social
life. 1t is in their voices and looks. In
repose it sets on their faces pitifully.
Reused into some great activity in storm.
in taking fish, or in saving lives.
they have grand, earnest faces. these
fishermen. But in the quiet hours. there Is
something hunted. haunted, wearied. wor-
ried, dreading and dreadful. to ba read in
the lines Of their faces, in the tromulous.
ness of their voices. and in the light which
shines from their eyes, that all their b, ave
Rnd hearty ways cannot hide or disguise.
1t is rs If the sea, from which they live,
had whispered in secret to each conscious
ness some savage threat of r%eprisnl; MS if
over every little comfort, home Joy, or we'll
earned content, hung the spectre-hand of
fate coming closer to the inner vision every
time the fsherman's heart grew glad. In
whatever degree this is universal, il seems
to me to be more marked among the fisher
men of England, Ireland and Scotland,
than l haver found it elsewhere revealed.
I believe Dickens saw and felt this at the
old fishing port of Great Yarmouth when
~ ouu Va AAo uA0 lCLAoCE
heart the pathetic characters of tho Peg
Cottys;-simple, tender. true; scorning
bnseness; resolute in all manly att. ibutes;
majestic in suffering and forgiveness: and
through and over all. the pathetic thread
of sadness, quivering like an endless plant
in a melodious though mournfu! song.
In this experience strange and tender,
weird and sad. pictures of fishing towns
and villages, sea-reaches and coasts innu-
merable, each one q study for a MASTER
brush, are stored within the memory. Here
are a few OF their outlincs:
The mighty southwest of ireland. Korry
coast, with weird Bray Hend, and majestic
st. Michaers mount upon G:ent sEelliv
rock. darkening along tho eastward land
horizon; and at sea-, just to tho north of
the gteat ocean liners' wav, the spring
mackerel feet-from Kerry hamleta, from
Mainland and from France. altogether
from 5000 to 1900 craft equently so
densely massed that water cannot be seen
from a fishing smack's deck; thousands of
seagulls whistling and ~fapping their white
wings above; and to the west. a sea horizon
of rose and orange where the setting sun
still shows a flaming edge; while moro thar
10000 lusty men, under n third rs many
flashing crutoh-lights set amidships of the
smacks. are silently shooting the great
brown seines for the night.
Matchless is that picture, evor tinted by
the near presence of fisher folk and thei.
storm whipped homes, you may see from
Shetland's most somber sea-wall height,
mighty, mournful Fitful head. II ia the
white mountain of the Norseman, on ac-
count OF the luster OF its slate formation.
Its highest craR rises fully 1000. feet above
tho sea, but the legendary hubitation OF
Norma. a bold. almost detached cliff lifting
its sea front into a point as sharp as a
church spire, is not more than three-fourths
that elevation. 1t is quite accessible nftor
Il rough scramble. and is sides are the
hnnntS pf mvriu6a nf san fowls Hor,ihlo
indeed must be the place in time of storm.
But away down there below. the sea ia often
as calm US Il highland loch. From the
higher headland the whole of Shetland can
be seen-waste, moor. hilloc1. valley. glen;
% land without forests. split and serratsd
by the ceaseless cravings of the sea. Tte-
anendous pteciplces rise everywhere. Lochs
and tarns show without copse or verdure.
7 hndowy "hellve,s" cut the walls where the
tide ia ever at Obj endaow. Hose a fishing
stations; there a dreary hamlet. Yonder q
9ravelly beach. with fish curers and their
sodden toll; beyond, IL weird gio with a
herd of seals turning their shining sidos to
the low, red sun. Over I'LL, a ilmy. d, eamy,
lender %presencc; for in the brief days DO,
fore the dark. long winter sets in, it is the
hsherman's "peerie summer in tho Shet-
land isles.
Strange. quiet. God-fearing souls are the
Fishermen of the Solway shores. whether
they live on the Scottish side. where every
stream and brae and vale has a reminder
of the immortal poet of the lowly who
rests within the sound Of Solway's tide
IhunderinRs, or on the English side. in
Fock-Rirt Cumberland, in the brave old
houses built from Roman walls. Giant
frames have these folk, and wondrous
height, wide, fair brows. great blue or
lazel eyes and leonine heads Of faxen
hair. l always remember them with
heir apparent nlertness of attention.
in unconscious habit and attitude OF
istening. For it is said these folks cnn
near the oncoming sweeps of the grsnt tide
bore from the Irish sea brinps tho
harvest of fish and often terror and death
or twenty miles away!
Long before this. il you are standing on
ho cliff eige above ancient Bowness. YOU
will SEQ the fishers. waist deep in water,
,urtying on the tightening of their upright
acts, which for ten miles below seem like
my fences of rush; and away R.award with
our glass Won can see them scuIryinp up
rom the ebb-slime and sands towards
afety and the shore. Then to your unprac.
iced ears come the faint revcrbsrations of
hoarse roar; and soon, like n pillar of
lame in the play of tho sunlight, tho preat
mist of tho advancing waters is
lung from Scotland to England, almost
rom Critiel to eilloth, md moves toward
gu like a lurid cloud above a running bat
lie. In a few moments more tho brilliancy
I tho phenomenon ia grsatest.
Preceding the advancing cloud along
he Becthing front of II wall of water fiyo
liles wide, %glittets. foains nnd Kisses a bank
( spume and spray, zoned, rimmod and
nterlaoed with tiny rsinbows. The roat-
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