WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 91 



north and violet in the south and west. It is very still, the only 

 sound the surge of the water over the white-ribbed flounces of 

 our whale's underside as it tows alongside. We speak little ; 

 there is the skipper, and the man at the wheel, on the bridge, 

 and one above us in the crow's nest ; the rest are sleeping 

 below. It is the romantic, beautiful time at sea, formality 

 goes, we talk a little of home and families we have, or may 

 have, and the night, as it were, just droops her golden eyes, 

 and in a very little while raises them on another day, blue 

 and fresh as ever, and we begin another day's hunting, to 

 get, if we can, one more whale to tow to our harbour in the 

 south, there to provide work and pay for Shetlanders and 

 Norwegians, food for Danes and ourselves, and fertilisers for 



farmers' crops and cattle, each of which subjects could not 

 be treated of in less than a page of these notes for itself. 

 But one word I may be allowed here for readers who are 

 interested in fertilisers for vegetables, and cattle foods. For 

 both these purposes the cooked and ground-down whale meat 

 and bone is invaluable, and it costs about one- sixth the price 

 of ordinary fertilisers but beware, don't use it for the latter 

 purpose without digging it into the soil. The gardener of 

 my friend, C. A. Hamilton of Dunmore, Stirlingshire, did 

 so put it on the top of the soil in a vinery, and was " maist 

 astonished." "Ma gosh, Maister Hamilton," he said, 

 " you'd hae thocht I'd plaunted pussey cawts ! " it was so 

 mouldy. The same worthy used it properly for turnips, dug 



