172 WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



inquired from the man on watch. " A school ot 

 herring with the bottle-nb"ses busy among 'em, sir," 

 was the reply. In the morning we saw plenty of 

 the whales, and most of them were working in 

 pairs and moving with the precision of well-trained 

 carriage horses. 



I have since seen whales dead or alive in many 

 places round the British Isles, but only once saw 

 one spout and that was off Flamborongh Head. I 

 must confess that I was a little bit disappointed 

 with his column of spray, too, because picture- 

 books had given me rather exalted ideas of the 

 performance. 



Whilst we were in the Shetlands last summer a 

 Norwegian fishing boat towed a dead bottle-nose 

 into Balta Sound. We heard the crew were going to 

 beach it very early one morning in order to strip 

 the blubber, so got up at 3 a.rn. and went down to 

 photograph it on the foreshore, and although dead 

 animals do not come within the scope of this work 

 I venture to reproduce the picture. The carcase of 

 another whale of the same species was washed 

 ashore on another part of the islands, and as its 

 head was injured the natives conjectured that there 

 had been a battle-royal. 



I have seen the dorsal fin of a shark two or 

 three times in British waters, but, of course, such a 

 limited portion of the fish would not be worth 

 photographing. 



I know one or two amateur photographers who 



