ON THE WHALE FISHERY FROM SCOTLAND 83 



withstanding a shrewd suspicion that they were in reality 

 a much less formidable animal, the Atlantic Right Whale 

 before referred to, and not the fierce and active Finners, 

 which, with the appliances available at that date, it must 

 have been beyond the power of man to subdue. 



Hitherto the whalemen had to deal with animals of a 

 timid, inoffensive nature. A fighting Polar Whale was of 

 rare occurrence, and such casualties as occurred were almost 

 entirely accidental ; but in the members of the family of 

 Balaenopteridae quite a different state of things prevailed, and 

 notwithstanding Ohthere's supposed example the modern 

 whalers left them severely alone. The rush of these 

 animals when wounded is tremendous, and their vitality so 

 strong, that attacking them in the old fashion from open 

 boats was too dangerous and the prize not sufficiently 

 valuable to warrant the risk involved in their pursuit. And 

 yet the Right Whales having become so scarce, we can 

 imagine the disappointment which the presence of so many 

 of these huge beasts, altogether beyond their power to 

 capture, must have caused the hardy Norwegian walrus- 

 hunters. At length it occurred to Herr Svend Foyn to try 

 the effect of an explosive projectile, which, if effectively 

 delivered, would place the whale at once hors de combat ; 

 and after expending a very considerable amount of money 

 and time in experimenting, he finally perfected a bomb 

 harpoon with a suitable gun for its delivery, and mounting 

 it in the bow of a small but powerful steam-vessel, he, I 

 believe in the year 1865 or 1866, made his first successful 

 voyage. Twenty years later no less than 34 similar vessels 

 were at work off the Finmarken coast, and a great industry 

 was firmly established, which has spread to Iceland, the 

 Faroes, and finally to the Shetland Islands, and will be still 

 further extended in the spring of 1904. The fishery from 

 all these localities has hitherto remained entirely in the 

 hands of the Norwegians, who have in the past season 

 established two stations at the head of Ronas Voe on the 

 north-west side of the Mainland of Shetland, whence they 

 send out steamers to kill the whales and tow them in to be 

 disposed of at the shore station. Commencing in the 

 months of May and June, they worked up to the gth of 



