Although the proprietors may originally have had some concern
with all the fishing of the year, it is in the ling fishery that they till
lately occupied, and in some instances still occupy, the position of
the old Dutch traders. In this position they have now, for the most
part, been succeeded by merchants, who in some instances are
tacksmen (or [Page 5 rpt.] 'tacksmasters,'-<Anglicé>, principal
lessees or middle-men, having sub-tenants), and in others are
merely lessees of a fishing station, with its invariable appendage,
a retail shop or store for goods of every kind. There is a regular
season for the haaf fishing, lasting from about the 20th of May till
the 12th of August. It is carried on chiefly from stations as near as
possible to the haaf, where lodges or huts are erected for each
boat's crew. The men return to their homes at the end of each
week. At each station where the fish are landed, whether that
is a temporary station,-such as Feideland, Whalsay Skerries,
Stenness, Papa Stour, Spiggie, or Gloup,-or a permanent curing
establishment and shop, such as Reawick, Uyea Sound, Quendale,
or Hillswick,-factors are employed by the merchants to receive
and weigh the fish, and enter the weight in a fish-book. These
factors at the temporary stations are entrusted with a small supply
of meal, lines, hooks, and other articles likely to be wanted by the
fishermen, which they sell to them in the same way as the
merchants themselves or their servants do at the permanent shops.
[W. Irvine, p. 85.]