96 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



What joy to sit and shave and be unconscious of the roll, 

 how superior we feel compared to the townsmen who left 

 Leith a week ago. There's the rush and sound of many 

 waters over our whales on either side, the largest a little less 

 than our own length. All hands have an easy time. It 

 takes two watches (eight hours each) down the Shetland 

 shore to our station, and no whales about. Of course the 

 land is clouded, and we regret that sunny chamber to the 

 N. and E. of Shetland. I speak to Jensen as we pass the 

 western cliffs and he verifies my experience ; to the N.W. 

 you come against dark hangings of rain, N.E. you are in sun, 

 back to land and you are in clouds again. It is no wonder 

 that sunny, crystalline stretch of sea a hundred miles north 

 of Flugga Light calls to one in town to go a-whaling. 



