Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/140

 said to be, the nature of the principal occupation, (mining), and the frequent and numerous elections in the boroughs for members of parliament.

The case is certainly very different at present, both among the mining and the agricultural population. Both of these classes of people must now be considered as habitually sober, although they, unquestionably, occasionally commit excesses in this particular. Two causes appear to have combined to produce this very desirable and beneficial change in the habits of the labouring classes in this district; the suppression of foreign smuggling, and the general prevalence of Methodism. For a good many years past, almost all the miners have been strict followers of the Wesleyan professors, and in place of spending their Sundays in the ale-house, have spent them in the laborious duties of the conventicle; while, during the same period, hardly any foreign spirits have found their way into the district.

E. Employments, Amusements, &c.─The principal peculiarities in the occupations of the miners, have been already mentioned; among the remaining classes of the people, there is little deserving notice under this head.

The fisher women are accustomed to carry on their backs, very heavy loads of fish, in baskets called cowals, the anterior strap of which is supported across the forehead. The same class of people have also an odd mode of carrying sand, in bags laid across the loins, and which are retained in their place partly by the hand stretched backwards, and partly by the inclination of the body forwards.