432 The Ravens — A Stratagem. \_Scptember, 



Those among yoa who like the sport of growing Dwarf Pears, so well 

 as to "live with them/' "talk to them," "coax them," "feed them 

 with a spoon," "pinch them," "give them drink from a mug," "per- 

 suade them," " shorten in," etc., just " pitch in," whilst we will just 

 pitch out. 



That Dwarf Pears are a humbug, is an opinion, as Benedict says, 

 "fire can not melt out of me ; I will die in it at the stake." W. S. 



Cincinnati, August^ X85&. 



f !je ^abttts— gl Stratagem. 



A HERD of grampuses (^Delphinus orca) having made their appear- 

 ance off the island of Pappay, in the Sound of Harris, in the summer 

 of 1818, the natives surrounded it in boats and drove it ashore. Some 

 of the animals were about thirty feet in length, others not more than 

 twelve. Forthwith all hands were out, busily employed in stripping 

 off the blubber, an operation which lasted but a few days. 



In the meantime two ravens were seen on the neighboring rocks, 

 croaking dolefully. The people then brought out all the pots they 

 could muster, for the purpose of boiling the blubber. The island sent 

 forth an odor which extended for miles around. Ravens came daily, 

 in pairs, and at length in small flocks. The grampuses, now abandoned 

 by their murderers, were attacked by the ravens, which, after gorging 

 themselves most gloriously from dawn till daylight, retired in the 

 evening to a rock in the vicinity, where they dozed away the short 

 hours of a summer's night, seeing in the visions of sleep the noble 

 carcasses of whales moored upon the island beaches of the stormy 

 Hebrides. 



There vv^ere about seventy grampuses in all, and for each grampus 

 there might be for the first week five ravens, the next week ten, then 

 twenty, and at length fifty ; so that the ominous army at length 

 amounted to upward of three thousand beaked warriors, headed by an 

 enormous white field-marshal, under whom were various speckled 

 generals. Spotted ravens, in fact, are sometimes seen in the Hebri- 

 des on ordinary occasions, but one totally white had never before pre- 

 sented itself to the astonished natives. The carcasses were wasting but 

 slowly; and so long as the ravens had plenty of food, no person 

 thought much about them. At length the flesh and entrails disap- 



