ANOTHER of those terrible visitations which have so frequently of late years befallen the fishing population on the east coast of Scotland, has again occurred, by which calamity no less than 44 men, mostly in the prime of life, have lost their lives, and no fewer than 27 widows and 79 orphans are left to bewail j their loss.

On the 23rd of November last, the whole fleet of large fishing-boats belonging to the small ports of Portknockie, Buckie, and Portgordon, were caught in a N.E. gale, which produced the above disastrous results, together with the destruction of a large amount of valuable property.

From Portknockie 14 boats, with 9 men in each, had left port at from 2 to 3 A.M.

They had arrived at their fishing-ground, and had cast their lines, and it was near the usual time for drawing them, when the first signs of the coming storm gathered around them; the atmosphere thickening, the wind shifting to the N.E., and each moment increasing in force. Certain that they were to be overtaken by a gale, they instantly got on board their lines, and made sail for the shore, which, alas! many of them were never to regain.

From Buckie no less than 29 boats had gone out, and from. Portgordon, five. And they, too, at the first warning of the gale, fled for the land. But a fleeter one than they—" the demon of the storm"—was fast following in their wake, and had already singled out the victims who were to be encircled within his cruel embrace. How many an anxious fear must have disturbed the bosoms of those hardy men as the waves gathered height around them ! How many a poor soul with palpitating heart and straining eye awaited them in agony upon the strand! We will however leave it to the imagination, of the reader to complete the harrowing picture; suffice it to say, that of the Portknockie fleet, 2 boats were lost, and 18 men drowned, and that 12 widows and 34 orphans are left to bewail them. That of the Buckie boats, 2 were lost, and 15 men drowned, leaving 8 widows and 22 children unprovided for. And that of the boats from Portgordon, 1 was lost, together with her crew of 9 souls, leaving 7 widows and 23 orphans bereaved of their chief earthly stay and support.

Yet, great as this calamity is, it is only one of a series which has been of periodical occurrence on the N.E. coast of Scotland in time past, and which will as surely be again and again repeated in time to come, unless some means be contrived to prevent its being so. Thus, in the single gale of August 19th, 1848, the results of which were so ably inquired into, and reported on, to the House of Commons by Captain WASHINGTON, R.N., no less than 100 men were drowned,'and 124 boats lost or damaged, involving a pecuniary loss of 7,0112. In August 1845, a large number had perished in the same manner; and so late as the spring of the past year, the port of Wick, on the Caithness-shire coast, was again a scene of desolation from a similar cause.

Now surely it were sufficient that these poor men are our fellow-creatures and fellow countrymen, to make us sensible of their claim on us for sympathy and protection; but over and above those natural ties, are they not a class who have especial claims on us? For whose benefit do they pass their lives in a dangerous avocation ? For whose use do they gather in the living treasures of the deep ? What class of their fellow-countrymen is there who partakes not of the fruit of their labour and of their peril ? Whether it be the costly turbot at the rich man's feast, or the prolific herring at the poor man's humble meal, how often has dear life been hazarded in its capture! How commonly have the long and bitter hours of the winter's night been employed by these hardy men in providing it, or in seeking it, whilst the more effeminate world on shore has been hushed in sleep! But there is a further reason why the community at large are interested in preserving this valuable class of men; in that they not only form the great nursery of our fleets, but also tend perhaps more than any other class, to keep alive and in activity that spirit of maritime enterprise, that love of the sea, which, under Providence, is as the very life-blood of an island-kingdom like our own.

We have dwelt thus long on the claims and on the importance to us of this class of men—the fishermen of the United Kingdom —preliminary to specifying the manner in which we think they may be helped and protected, as such efficient help and pro- tection can only be afforded them by public aid.

The manner in which we conceive the fishermen on our coasts may be thus aided is threefold. 1st By the making, the enlargement,, or the improvement, of fishing-harbours and ports, of refuge for fishing-boats when overtaken by storms at sea.

2nd., By the improvement of fishingboats, and especially by their being generally, so &r fitted as life-boats, that is, provided with the properties of life-boats, in that they shall not be submergible if filled by a sea, and that their stability or obstruction to upsetting shall be very greatly increased.

3rdlv. By the establishment of life-boats at all fishing-stations, where they are not already provided, for the purpose of proceeding to the rescue of fishing-boats upset by a sea, and of attending on them when crossing a bar, or through any dangerous surf on their return to the land. The work under the first of the above heads will be one of great magnitude, and which can only be effected by the Government of the country.

That under the second head would probably come under the same category. That under the third head might be undertaken by the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, but the Institution would have especial claim in such cases for the Government's pecuniary aid.

We have said that the work under the first head would be one of great magnitude, but we conceive it also to be one of incalculable importance, and for which no amount of cost should be grudged. To be sure there would be no Holyheads required, costing millions of pounds; for very many of our small fishing-harbours a few thousands, or even hundreds,'expended in adding to or improving a pier, or deepening the water, or removing a few rocks, would suffice.

Yet the aggregate would amount to millions, and the only question should be, over how many years: should it be distributed. We think that at the least 50,0001 should be annually voted by Parliament to this great national object, until every body of fishermen in the kingdom be provided with all the protection and convenience that can be shown to be alike available arid important.

As a first step, an especial Fishery Board should be appointed, for carrying out the above objects round the whole coasts of the United Kingdom, combined of naval and engineering talent, who might take a certain number of fishing-ports in hand together, completing and perfecting each in every respect before proceeding with others. These N.E. ports of Scotland, where there seems to be the most crying need for help, might be first commenced with. The want of safe harbourage for the fishermen on that coast, and the especial advantage of a harbour of refuge, at Wick, on the Caithness shore, was urgently advocated by Captain WASHINGTON in his valuable Report to the House of Commons, above alluded to, and other high authorities have likewise done so since that period. A special Harbour of Refuge Committee of the House of Commons is, we believe, at this time engaged in the consideration of Wick, amongst other pkces, as a harbour of refuge. If our space admits of our doing so, we will add at the conclusion of this article some quotations from an interesting pamphlet which has just been put into our hands in the shape of an appeal on the behalf of Wick, to the Harbour of Refuge Committee, by JOHN MACKIE, Esq., of that place, editor of the Northern Ensign.

On our second head, the improvement of fishing-boats, and their partial life-boat equipment, might be readily brought about by a Government Board, and a vastly improved ek»ss of boats would, we think, be the infallible permanent result. Thus, as in the case of the improvement of fishing-ports, the boats of a certain number of localities might be at first taken in hand. One of each class at each port would be carefully examined in, detail, and the various requirements of each be well considered, and the opinions of all the most experienced of _the fishermen attentively heard and weighed, having reference to the character of the shore, shoalness of the water, nature of the sea, amount of stowage-room required for nets, lines, cargo, masts and sails,, warps, &c. The form and size thought best calculated to meet these requirements, and at the same time to insure stability, speed, handistrength, general safety, and cheap- ness, would then be decided on; and next, the important question as to what spaces within-board could'be spared to occupy with the buoyant air-cases or life-boat property, would be maturely considered and decided on. On this latter point we believe it will be found that the space which can best be spared, is just that which is most conducive to safety, viz., the extreme sides and the extreme ends of a boat beneath the thwarts. Few persons, indeed, who have not considered the subject have any conception how greatly the safety of a boat is increased, independently of her becoming insubmergible, by the simple occupancy of the spaces along the sides and at the extreme ends of a boat by water-tight cases or compartments of air : without them the moment the side or end of a boat is forced, under water, all buoyancy of the part submerged is at once lost, and tfie boat of necessity submerged or upset: with them the upward or floating power of the submerged air is immediately brought to bear against the upsetting power, to the amount of about 64 Ibs.

for every cubic foot. The effect of these cases alone along the sides would prevent many a boat's upsetting on her broadside, and their extra buoyancy would enable an iron keel of moderate weight to be safely added, which forming the most powerful description of ballast, would still further increase lateral stability, whilst a large buoyant compartment at the bow, or the space under the forecastle deck, fitted with a water-tight door, would make it impossible for a boat to run her bow under water, and would thus often, if not always, prevent her upsetting when running before a sea, by the act of broaching-to, which is by far the most frequent cause of loss to fishing-boats when running for the shore in a gale.

Having decided on the improvements on the above heads, the Fishery Board might then cause a model-boat or boats to be built for each locality, and might place it or them in the hands of a selected party of fishermen for a full trial. Its superiority being settled, and every available improvement made in it, it might be either sold by public auction or private contract to the highest bidder amongst the fishermen of the port; and for the improvement of all the other boats, by furnishing them with the life-boat fittings, and for conforming all future boats built to the Board's model, a proportional grant might, for a certain number of years at least, be given from the funds at the disposal of the Board.

In the above manner we think that the two great objects of improved fishery-ports and improved fishing-boats might be readily effected. As regards the third proposition— the supply of a perfectly equipped life-boat, to be maintained ready for instant service, in every fishing locality on exposed parts of the coast—we may state that the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION is at all times ready to receive overtures from any locality where the inhabitants themselves will be willing to subscribe a sufficient amount to insure a local interest in the establishment.

We will offer but one further remark on this subject. There is a prevailing opinion, that it so happens, either fortuitously, or as the result of experience, or by a special Providential provision, that the fishing and other boats in every locality are just those best adapted for it. Now, whilst admitting to a slight extent the truth of the conclusion, we cannot do so altogether. Fishermen, as a class, are an inert body; as a general rule, they are satisfied with what has been handed down to them by their fathers, and thus an inferior description of boat, or gear, is as likely to be perpetuated as one of a superior kind. All we advocate is, that where the combined wisdom of science and experience shows that improvement may be made, it shall forthwith be so.

We now subjoin, in conclusion, the very graphic and feeling remarks of Mr. MiCKlE on this subject, having especial reference to the formation of a Harbour of .Refuge at Wick, in Caithness-shire.

Another phase of the fishing question Is presented in the fact that it furnishes to the nation at large a valuable article entering largely into the diet of the masses. 'Wick herrings are carried away on British and foreign bottoms to every port in the kingdom; and are found in the provision markets of the most inland city and town of England.

Here, then, as regards the fishing, the question of a breakwater stands. Nine thousand men, most of them unconnected with Caithness, for ten months in the year—engaged in a calling which yields a valuable article of national diet—which gives employment to many thousands throughout the kingdom in producing the material required for its prosecution, and which circulates a large sum of money over the whole industrial districts of the country, are nightly, during the season, exposed to the perils of our northern coasts, and liable every night to be overtaken by a sudden storm.

These nine thousand men, manning boats and casting nets into the sea of an aggregate value of nearly a quarter of a million sterling—their all— proceed every night distances of from two to thirty miles, and sometimes more, in pursuit of their calling; and they do so without having on the whole Caithness and Sutherland eastern seaboard, from the entrance of the Dornoch Firth to Duncansbay, one harbour accessible beyond half tide, •or even safe to enter at any time of the tide during storms from certain directions. And hence, as was the case in 1848, in a storm from the south-east, the boats ran for Wick Harbour, where there was plenty of depth of water—and thirty-seven men perished in the attempt. Only those who have seen the miserable creeks whence the boats proceed nightly to sea can have the slightest idea of the peril to which these thousands of active and industrious men are exposed; and only those on the spot enter into the feelings of crushing and intense anxiety in which the weary nights of the fishing are passed by the people on shore. On the slightest appearance of a gale, the shores are lined with tremblingly anxious thousands, and so dreaded is the coast, that frequently hundreds of boats return from sea before sunset, and without prosecuting the fishing, in comparatively fine weather, rather than run the risk of a threatened gale, and destruction in the flight for safety wherever it may be faintly imagined to exist And it is worthy of notice that the present state of our bay and harbour—the former so open and the latter so unsafe—has every year a most serious effect in retarding the progress of the fishing. As an example, I may state that during greater part of a whole week in the past season, when the coasts were teeming with herrings, when a smart, but by no means serious breeze was blowing from the south-east, and when the fishing could have been prosecuted at sea with the greatest safety, not a boat ventured out, the bay and harbour being in a condition that rendered it perilous for the fishermen to attempt going out. This is a circumstance of yearly occurrence; and 1 am borne out by the opinion of every fisherman of experience when I state that its results is an annual loss of at least 30,0002. worth of herrings.

Were you to go over the whole Caithness seaboard, commencing at Duncansbay Head, and terminating at the Ord, during a gale from any point of the compass, from north-eastward to south, you could not fail to be struck with the totally shelterless condition of the coast, nor to wonder at the fewness of the calamities—despite their number and sadness—that occur. In fact, but for the circumstance that the fishermen, too well aware of the nature of the coast, and the peril to which they are exposed, refrain from going to sea when the weather threatens, we should almost weekly be startled with such calamities as those of 1845, 1848, and 1857, and others of a less disastrous character.

Permit me also to state that time is everything.

Not a year passes without some calamity of greater or less extent occurring in this neighbourhood, through its harbourless condition, involving numerous individuals and families in desolation and ruin. The fishermen, wearied almost to exhaustion with patient expectation that something would be done for them, nightly exposed to the most imminent peril, and yearly alarmed at events which result in the drowning of their fellows and the destruction of their property, are becoming more and more afraid to venture themselves in such a dangerous occupation. Need this excite wonder, when on a seaboard of little more than twentyfive miles, on a coast of unbroken projecting rocky headlands, without a creek where refuge for one hundred boats can be obtained, seventeen hundred boats, with 10,000 precious lives on board, every night during the season, venture on the treacherous waters of the Caithness coast, in open boats, not knowing but that in a few minutes the storm may assail them, and the whole seventeen hundred boats may have to flee to land for shelter? Whither shall they fly ? Eastward there is nothing but one vast expanse of ocean. Northward the perilous and troubled waters of the Pentland Firth mock their attempts at gaining shelter in Orkney, and there they have never been known to run. Southwards sixty miles of treacherous sea lie between them and Fraserburgh, to which only one boat has been known to escape during the last twenty years; while to both Fraserburgh and Cromarty, the latter at a distance of sixty miles to the south-west, the general direction of the winds of our autumn storms prevents the possibility of escape; whilst along the westward shores, to which alone they can fly, with the shadow of a hope of gafety, there runs one long chain of towering rocks, broken here and there by creeks, over which the seas break with a surging violence, and where hundreds of boats and scores of precious lives have been sacrificed..