408 THE WORED OF PHE “SEA: 
fishermen armed with lances or pikes, and on the other side is the 
shore, where the first imprudent movement will inevitably strand 
them. Soon follows a horrible carnage. The fishermen strike, 
strangle, massacre by any means; blood pours till the sea becomes 
quite red, and those fish which might have a chance of escape, lose 
their characteristic agility in the poisoned waters, and perish like 
the rest, by the thrust of the harpoon. The victims may often be 
counted by hundreds. When all are killed they are dragged to the 
beach. The “sysselmand” estimates the value of each animal, and 
chalks his estimate on the back. The governor makes the division 
of the spoil; first, a portion, which is called “#¢he, is taken for the 
king, the church, and the priests; another for the authorities and 
functionaries ; a third for the poor ; and a fourth for those who join 
in the fishery, so much for each man, and for each boat. The man 
who was the first to discover the shoal, has a right to choose the 
finest dolphin. Those men who have been wounded, or who 
have suffered any loss during the expedition, have an additional 
share; another portion must be reserved for the proprietor of the 
land where the fish were caught, and this portion generally falls 
also to the king, who is the supreme owner of the whole land. 
When the division is over, the animals are cut into pieces ; the skin 
is taken off to be made into leather, the flesh and fat form the best 
provision for the Faroene household. Oil is procured from the fat; 
and the bladder, when dried, serves as a vessel for the oil. The 
entrails are carried by the boats out to sea, to avoid any infection 
arising from their decomposition on the land. A dolphin of 
average size yields usually a tun of oil, which sells at Thorshaven 
for twenty-five or thirty shillings. The flesh and fat are worth 
about as much. 
Audubon relates that during a long calm a troop of splendid 
dolphins played about the sides of his ship, sparkling in the light 
like burnished gold, and equal in brilliance to meteors at night. 
The captain and sailors cleverly contrived to catch some of them 
with hooks, or by piercing them with an instrument with five 
points, called a pike. When the dolphin feels the hook he struggles 
violently, and rushes impetuously to the end of the line, when, 
finding himself suddenly stopped, he leaps high up out of the water, 
and often manages to detach himself. When he has been fairly 
