IO2 Summer 



been seen far southward off the east coast ; and the 

 largest slaughter of which any record is extant took 

 place near the Faroe Islands in 1644, when over a 

 thousand were killed in two expeditions. In the last 

 year of last century, over two hundred were slain 

 near Fetlar. 



In a general way the temperament of the islesman 

 is slow and torpid, but at the cry of ' Whales in the 

 bay ! ' he wakens up to an extraordinary extent ; for 

 there never was a sea-loving people which was not 

 fond of sport, and besides, the sport is lucra- 

 tive. So whether from church or market, from meat 

 or labour, there is an instantaneous rush to the sea- 

 side. Boats appear as if by magic from you cannot tell 

 where, but every islander seems to have one of some 

 sort. Young and old, the strong and the weak, are 

 equally excited, and arm themselves with the first 

 weapons that come handy : rusty harpoons and 

 ancient flint-guns, scythes, sickles, and pike-staffs. 

 Sometimes, indeed, the whole sport will be spoiled 

 in the flurry, as happened a few seasons back. A 

 cetacean had stranded himself on the sandy shore of 

 Scapa Flow, when a too ardent farmer rushed forward 

 and stabbed him with a dung-fork. Frantic with 

 pain, the creature made a desperate effort, edged off 

 into deep water, and very soon the occasional glitter 

 of a fin or an uncouth gambol told the disappointed 

 onlookers that all the shoal was off to the Pentland 

 Firth. But should no such accident betide, the fleet 



