the young
seaman seen that ugly dangerous place where the falling yard had smashed
the dock in; and the owner had to thank the dogged hopeless bravery of
his men for saving the brig even after the great leak was discovered.
The "Wansbeck" is still running; but she has patent rigging and
serviceable pumps, and probably her owner is not so much the object of
unfriendly wishes.

NORTH-COUNTRY FISHERMEN.

The men who go away in the great smacks and remain at sea for many weeks
at a time are used to call themselves fishermen; but the long-shore
fisher does not consider these smacksmen as being members of his
profession at all. A person who leaves his own village, and never comes
home in the morning like a decent citizen, is regarded with much
condescension by the owner of a coble. The bolder voyager calls himself
a fisher, but he is really only a kind of sailor; and as such he is a
being to be patronized by the true craftsman. Right up the coast, from
the Tyne to Berwick, little villages are planted at intervals of about
four miles; and these villages are mostly inhabited by men who only use
open boats. The ethnologists say that, as regards height, chest
measurement, and strength, the population of this strip of coast shows
the finest men in the world. The Cumberland dalesmen are often very
tall; but in weight and girth of chest the mountaineers are not equal to
the Northumbrian fishers. Dr. Brown has published some curious
statistics bearing on this point; and he is of opinion that the flower
of the English race may be found within a circle of two or three miles
around the village of Boulmer. The villages are much alike in every
respect. The early settlers seem to have looked for places where a
range of low rocks lay like the string of a bow across the curve of a
bay, or where a cove nestled under the southerly steep of a jutting
point. The beaches shelve very gradually, and are never shingly; so that
a special kind of boat gradually had to be contrived in order that the
peculiar nature of the landing might be suited. The early fishermen saw
that the boat must have a very light draught of water, and yet be
sufficiently weatherly to face the open sea. Thus, after years of
experiment, the "coble" was designed in its present form; and these
craft are as much the product of their special locality as are the men
who man them. The coble has an exceedingly deep bow, which grips the
water to a depth of some three feet, a