74 EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 



The reader is not to imagine tliat the whales 

 I am describing are the great whales. They 

 are what are called the " bottle-noses," from 

 twelve feet to twenty feet long, and they con- 

 sort together and go in shoals — for what 

 purpose I don't pretend to say, nor am I 

 sufficiently read in natural history to say what 

 their birth, parentage, or education may be. 

 But they every now and then make a voyage 

 of discovery to the Hebrides. When they 

 come they produce great excitement, and their 

 capture is a great object to the inhabitants, as 

 each bottle-nose contains within itself a certain 

 portion of very good oil. The method of 

 capture adopted is, by following and flanking 

 them at a very respectful distance, to get them 

 into some sea loch, at the head of which lies 

 some shoaling ground. An indented rock- 

 bound loch is of no use. Having thus induced 

 them to enter such a loch, you follow them up 

 in the same manner, slowly and distantly, 

 cautiously outflanking, but never pressing or 

 disturbing them. Thus, as it were, left to 

 themselves, they gradually advance up the 

 loch, following their leader ; and, if the tide 

 and shoal and all be propitious, he will of his 

 own accord take the shoal water, even some- 

 times beach himself on the sandy spit, when 



