landlord to fix his rent day so as to be convenient for the
fishermen?-I think it is. They fix it after settlement. Mr.
Walker, the first year he was factor for Major Cameron, came
nearly close to his time, 11th November, but since then he has not
done so.' '9666. You are not aware whether that practice of giving
lines exists in Yell now?-It does exist. I myself have paid rents by
orders for cattle bought from Major Cameron's tenants.'

In these and similar cases the curers are not formally tacksmen,
nor indeed do they formally guarantee to the proprietors the rents
of the tenants who deliver their fish to them; but it may be said
that there is a custom having almost the force of a legal obligation,
which makes it unusual for a merchant to refuse an advance for
payment of rent even to a man who is indebted to him. An
extreme example of this custom as it prevailed in Unst is thus
described by a very intelligent merchant, Mr. Sandison:-

'I have here a letter which I wrote in 1860, and which represents
my views on that subject, and I may as well read an extract from
it:-"If we don't give unlimited advances, we are told the
fishermen will be taken from us. I have now been nearly
twelve months in this place (that was after I came first to Uyea),
and have closely watched the system pursued by proprietors and
others, and certainly agree with you that it is a bad one; but I know
I have no right to make any remarks or trouble you with my views
on that subject, further than to state that I cannot see any good that
will result from burdening the tenants with debt to the fish-curers.
It has been my desire, ever since I knew anything about Shetland
tenantry, to see them raised in the social scale, and made
thoroughly independent both of proprietors, fish-curers, and