It is necessary to distinguish the terms which are somewhat
loosely used in speaking of the different kinds of fishing carried on
in Shetland. The home or summer fishing, when that term is used
in its widest sense, includes all the fishing for ling, cod, tusk,
[Page 4 rpt.] and seath prosecuted in open boats, whether of six
oars, or of a smaller size such as are still used for the seath fishery
at Sumburgh. The 'haaf fishery' is, in the greater part of Shetland,
synonymous with the home or summer fishery, being distinguished
from it only where, as at Sumburgh, seath fishing is prosecuted in
summer in the smaller open boats. 'Haaf' is 'the deep sea - the
fishing of cod, ling, and tusk.'* This fishery is also generically
known as the ling fishing, because, though, considerable quantities
of tusk and cod are also caught at the haaf, ling is by far the most
important part of its produce. The term 'cod fishing' is sometimes
applied to what is usually called the 'Faroe fishing', which is
prosecuted in large smacks in the vicinity of the Faroe Islands, and
in autumn as far north as Iceland. On the west coast of the
mainland, the 'cod fishing'- or 'home cod fishing' as it is called,
to distinguish it from the Faroe fishing - is carried on, though
now to a comparatively trifling extent, in smacks of a smaller size,
at banks to the south-west of Shetland. The 'winter fishing' is
prosecuted in small boats of four oars, which belong entirely to the
men engaged in it, the fish being generally cured by themselves, or
sold to any merchant they please for a price fixed and paid in
money or goods at the time.
* Edmonstone's <Etymological Glossary of Orkney and Shetland
Dialect> (Edin. 1866.)