1883.] THE INDUSTRIES OF SHETLAND. 2» 



Ca'ing whale will yield a barrel of oil, and measure 20 ft. loDg, 

 exclusive of the tail, and 10 ft. in girth. The breadth of the tail 

 of a full-sized specimen, as I found by several measurements, is 

 5 ft., and that of the dorsal fin 28 in. 



I learned a great deal about whales, botli as to the right of capture 

 and also their natural history, but on both these su1)jects I afterwards 

 compared my notes with the works of the best authorities, remember- 

 ing that the powerful imagination of fishermen has rendered them a 

 little unreliable in reference to the monsters of the deep, especially 

 in Shetland waters. In the case of whales caught in plcine mer, 

 where poor fishermen seldom catch them, they belong entirely to the 

 captors, but when they are driven ashore, the owner <of the land 

 adjoining the beach takes a shaie. This is a grievance. He formerly 

 took one half of the proceeds of a day's work such as I have 

 described. This was a terrible grievance, and a constant source of 

 disputes, until at last a question was raised in the Court of Session, 

 and the landlord's future share was adjudged to be one third. The 

 old laws by which the landlord claims part of what is taken from the 

 deep by means of the skill and labour of the tenant are the ancient 

 Forest Laws of England. According to those ancient ordinances, all 

 ' great whales ' which could not be drawn on a wain by six oxen 

 belonged to the king ; but in Shetland, the king's donatory in after 

 times claimed a share even of the small fry of the whale tribe. 



The Pioyal right had never been actually exercised in the case of 

 whales that were forced ashore by the exertions and industry of the 

 people, and the claim to a share both of big and small whales by the 

 denary, and afterwards by his deputy, and by the landlords, was 

 finally established by iise and wont, and not by statute law. 



The full title of the Ca'ing whale is Glohicephalus deductor, or 

 Ptound-Head Leader. His globular head and the want of a snout — 

 that mark of energy in well-developed faces — are defects which give 

 this whale a particularly foolish appearance. There can l)e no doubt 

 of his occasional folly when we find him on the shallows. What 

 makes him such a fool I know not, but what makes him look so 

 exceedingly unwise is the projection of the upper jaw, the absence of 

 nose, the roundness of the face, and the opening of the foolish 

 mouth a little below the middle of the globe, about midway between 

 its equator and the antarctic circle. The circumstances render 

 Globy's personal appearance ridiculous. He looks altogether the 

 simpleton he is. His under chops open and shut like the lower part 

 of a pair of bellows, the upper structure being a fixture. The jaw 

 is not provided with whalebone for the purpose of straining the 

 small fry that swarm in the voes and straits of the islands, but with 

 teeth for mashing them up. There is a blow- hole at the back of the head. 



