We have heard it said that every man’s hair has a stronger growth on one side of his head than the other, but whether this barber left more hair on the strong side or not we did not know.  In any case, the difference between the two sides, both of hair and beard, after the barber’s operation was very noticeable.  The only sublime thing about the shop was the barber himself, and possibly he thought of himself when speaking of its sublimity.  He was a well-known character in Wick, and if his lot had been cast in a more expansive neighbourhood he might have filled a much higher position.  He impressed us very much, and had we visited Wick again we should certainly have paid him a complimentary visit.  We then purchased a few prints of the neighbourhood at Mr. Johnston’s shop, and were given some information concerning the herring industry.  It appeared that this industry was formerly in the hands of the Dutch, who exploited the British coasts as well as their own, for the log of the Dutillet, the ship which brought Prince Charles Edward to Scotland in 1745, records that on August 25th it joined two Dutch men-of-war and a fleet of herring craft off Rongisby.

[Illustration:  OLD MAN OF WICK.]

In the early part of the fourteenth century there arose a large demand for this kind of fish by Roman Catholics both in the British Isles and on the Continent.  The fish deserted the Baltic and new herring fields were sought, while it became necessary to find some method of preserving them.  The art of curing herrings was discovered by a Dutchman named Baukel.  Such was the importance attached to this discovery that the Emperor Charles V caused a costly memorial to be erected over his grave at Biervlet.  The trade remained in the hands of the Dutch for a long time, and the cured herrings were chiefly shipped to Stettin, and thence to Spain and other Roman Catholic countries, large profits being made.  In 1749, however, a British Fishery Society was established, and a bounty of L50 offered on every ton of herrings caught.  In 1803 an expert Dutchman was employed to superintend the growing industry, and from 1830 Wick took the lead in the herring industry, which in a few years’ time extended all round the coasts, the piles of herring-barrels along the quay at Wick making a sight worth seeing.

We had not gone far when we turned aside to visit the ruins of Wick Castle, which had been named by the sailors “The Auld Man o’Wick.”  It was built like most of the others we had seen, on a small promontory protected by the sea on three sides, but there were two crevices in the rock up which the sea was rushing with terrific force.  The rock on which its foundations rested we estimated to be about 150 feet high, and there was only a narrow strip of land connecting it with the mainland.  The solitary tower that remained standing was about fifty feet high, and apparently broader at the top than at the bottom, being about ten or twelve yards