“ Women undertake the cleaning and curing, and the work attracts them from all parts. So expert are they that on the occasion of a heavy catch they are sent as far even as Yarmouth to direct and assist the local hands. Shipbuilding has now been discontinued, but boat-building and, net-making are extensively carried on. There are also cooperage, the manufacture of fish-guano and fish products, flour mills, steam saw mills, a ropery and a woollen manufactory, a brewery and a distillery. The town, with Cromarty, Dingwall, Dornoch, Kirkwall and Tain, forms the Wick group of parliamentary burghs. ”

“ The chief exports are fish, cattle and agricultural produce, and the imports include coal, wood and provisions. Steamers from Leith and Aberdeen run twice a week and there is also weekly communication with Stromness, Kirkwall and Lerwick. It is to its fisheries that the town owes its prosperity. ”

“ It consists of the old burgh and Louisburgh, its continuation, on the north bank of the river Wick, and of Pulteneytown, the chief seat of commerce and trade, on the south side. Pulteneytown, laid out in 1805 by the British Fishery Society, is built on a regular plan; and Wick proper consists chiefly of the narrow and irregular High Street, with Bridge Street, more regularly built, which contains the town hall and the county buildings. In Pulteneytown there are an academy, a chamber of commerce, a naval reserve station and a fish exchange. ”