26 THE INDUSTBIES OF SHETLAND. [Nov., 



' They man the boats, and all the young men arm 

 With -whatsoever may the monsters harm ; 

 Spikes, halberts, spits, and darts that wound so far ; 

 The tools of peace, the implements of war.' 



rrom a commercial point of view the stranding of a good drove of 

 •whales is almost equal to the wreck of a richly-laden Dutch galleon 

 in times past. The division of plunder which followed upon the 

 wreck is repeated in the case of the stranded whales. Each person 

 who had aided in the capture receives his share of the value of the 

 blubber, which not infrequently amounts to several pounds for each 

 individual, and secures for his family a variety of comforts which 

 they do not usually enjoy. 



Under the circumstances it is not surprising that the news of the 

 near neighbourhood of a drove of whales should spread like wild-fire. 

 All the fishing boats within reach are soon at sea and waiting for 

 orders. The object is to drive or persuade the whales, and as 

 unanimity of action is essential to the success of the enterprise, some 

 person of acknowledged authority is at once called to the command 

 by the general voice. At the hunt which I shall endeavour to 

 describe, the management of an unusually large flotilla of fishing 

 boats, and the critical business of driving several hundred whales 

 was admirably performed by the principal laird of the locality. 



The first order of our captain postponed the action till several 

 reinforcements of boats, which were seen putting off from the 

 neighbouring islands, had arrived. The whales, flocking like sheep, 

 according to their usual habit, were hovering in the offmg of one of 

 the little sounds which abound in these broken coasts, having within 

 it a small shallow bay admirably adapted for the stranding of the 

 whales if they could be induced to enter it. 



Shetland ^vhales, called usually Ca'ing whales, behave, when driven, 

 very much us sheep do. If they are managed with tact, all goes well ; 

 if they are hurried and j ushed too hard, they become alarmed and 

 bolt like sheep in the wrong direction and when this occurs the 

 prize is lost, and the vliales return pell-mell to the deep water. The 

 successful driving therefore depends in great measure on the skill 

 and tack with which the leader marshals and restrains the various 

 crews which for a few hours he commands. The laird was equal to 

 the occasion. After arranfring the flotilla in the form of a crescent 

 at a proper distance from the whales, he gave the signal. And then 

 commenced the customary uproar of a whale hunt, shouting, plunging 

 great stones in the water, scraping of fiddles, banging of kettles. 

 No kind of noise or splashing comes amiss on such an occasion, 

 provided it is carried on at a proper distance in the rear, so as to keep 

 the game moving onwards, astonished but not alarmed i 



