150 GREAT CAPTURE OF WHALES. 



close of the year in stormy weather. They are then chiefly 

 captured by nets, which are extended across the narrow 

 sounds between the islands, and when thus entangled they 

 are killed with lances. 



Another whale, called the Deductor^ resembles somewhat 

 the white whale, and appears to be the most sociable of all 

 the Cetacean tribe, herding together in innumerable flocks. 

 This leads, however, to a prodigious slaughter of these poor 

 animals when (although frequenting chiefly the Northern 

 Ocean), they wander away from their usual haunts, and get 

 driven on shore by the fishermen, the main body of the 

 drove following the leading whales as a flock of sheep. 



There is an account given of the capture of ninety-eight 

 of these whales, in 1832, on the island of Lewis: 



" An immense shoal of whales was, early in the morning, 

 chased to the mouth of the harbor of Stornoway by two 

 fishing-boats, which had met them in the offing. The cir- 

 cumstance was immediately seen from the shore, and a host 

 of boats, about thirty or forty in number, set off to join the 

 others in pursuit, and engage in combat with these giants of 

 the deep. The chase soon became one of bustle and anxiety 

 on the part both of man and whale. The boats were ar- 

 ranged by their crews in the form of a crescent, in the fold 

 of which the whales were collected, and where they had to 

 encounter tremendous showers of stones, splashings of oars, 

 frequent gashings with harpoons and spears, whilst the din 

 created by the shoutings of the boats' crews and the multi- 

 tude on shore was in itself sufficient to stupefy and stun the 

 bottle-nosed foe into a surrender. On more than one occa- 

 sion, however, the floating phalanx was broken, and it re- 

 quired the greatest activity and tact before the breach could 

 be repaired and the fugitives regained. The shore was 

 neared by degrees, the boats advancing and retreating by 

 turns, till at length they succeeded in driving the captive 

 monsters on the beach opposite the town and within a few 



