106" THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



stead of this, we saw the monster sailing off with the 

 utmost gravity and solemnity." 



A very singular circumstance, as related to Sir Arthur 

 Brooke, in the Nordlands and Finmark, is the partiality 

 these enormous animals have for cows or horses; and 

 he was acquainted with a merchant at Tromsoe who, 

 having some of the former in a boat, was so constantly 

 pursued by them that he was obliged to land and put 

 the cows on shore. At Rbst is a small inlet, or narrow 

 creek, at the extremity of which are large cow-houses ; 

 and it happens that almost every year whales are taken 

 in it, being attracted, it is said, by the smell of the 

 cows or their ordure ; when, not being able to return, 

 they fall a prey to the fishermen. 



The manner in which the whale-fishery is conducted 

 about Tromsoe and other parts of the Finmark coast, by 

 the Laplanders, is singular. When a fin whale is dis- 

 covered, two of them go in pursuit of it in a small boat. 

 On approaching it, as soon as they have succeeded in 

 plunging the harpoon into the animal, they immediately 

 break it off close, and their business is finished. They 

 think nothing of farther securing the whale, which, with 

 inconceivable velocity, makes off from its cruel ene- 

 mies, but bearing in it the deadly mark of their attack 

 plunged deep in its body, and in the course of a few 

 days it is generally found dead on some part or other of 

 the neighbouring coast. The person who finds it gives 

 notice of it, and the fisherman who struck it comes and 

 identifies his property, by his name or mark on the barb 

 of the harpoon. The finder is then rewarded by one- 

 third of the booty, to which he is by law entitled.* 



The inhabitants of Kamtschatka make use of every 



* Sir A. Brooke's Travels, p. 300. 



