188 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



In April and August 1824, during the time we lay at 

 anchor in Brassa Sound (Lei wick), I observed great num- 

 bers of them, as well as during the voyage to and from the 

 icy seas. Captain Scoresby in his work has copied, from 

 a volume lent him by Dr. TraiU, a description of the 

 mode of captnnng the Deductor by the natives of the 

 Feroe Islands in the 17th centuiy. From this work it 

 appears that numerous animals of this kind, called in 

 Feroe the guard-whales, were frequently driven ashore 

 by the boats, and killed, and that in the year 1664 

 there were taken at two places about a thousand. Many 

 other historical notices of the capture of these shoals are 

 to be met with. In the year 1 748, forty of them were 

 seen in Torbay, and one seventeen feet in length was 

 killed. In 1799 about two hundred of them, varying 

 from eight to twenty feet in length, ran themselves 

 ashore at Taesta Sound, Fellar, one of the Shetland 

 Isles. In the winter of 1809 and 1810, one thousand 

 one hundred of these whales approached the shore in 

 Hvalfiord, Iceland, and were captured ; and, in the winter 

 of 1814, one hundred and fifty of the same were driven 

 into Balta Sound, Shetland, and there killed. There are 

 only instances of a very small proportion, of which in 

 modern times, an extensive slaughter of the Delphinus 

 Deductor has taken place on the shores of the British 

 and other northern islands. 



In addition to these, the following extract from the 

 Caledonian Mercury may not be uninteresting : — 



" The thriving little town of Stornaway, in the island 

 of Lewis, was on Wednesday week (April 25th, 1832) 

 enlivened by a scene of the most animated and striking 

 description. An immense shoal of whales was, early in 

 the morning, chased to the mouth of the harbour by two 

 fishing boats, which had met them in the offing. This 



