112 



MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



whence, after being wind-bound for a while, I sailed 

 in the post boat, which was then the only means of 

 conveying letters from island to island, and so reached 

 the so-called " Mainland," and settled at Kirkwall. 



The next year I started before the grouse season 

 began, and spent a most interesting summer among 

 the Shetlands, using rowboats as the usual means of 

 conveyance, and occupying myself with seal-shooting 

 and bird-nesting. I could write much about all this, 

 and on the weird experiences of a fisher society living 

 in a treeless land, with whale-jaws for posts, and with 

 no knife in their pockets larger than a penknife, 

 having only tobacco and string to cut with it. Their 

 social hierarchy was such, that a man who had been 

 to Hudson's Bay had taken, to speak in the language 

 of a University, a " Poll Degree." Those who had 

 visited Baffin Bay were considered to have gained 

 " Honours." 



A shoal of whales (the cawing whale, averaging 

 perhaps 20 feet in length) came ashore whilst I was 

 in Shetland, and I hurriedly rode several miles to be 

 in time to see them. Nearly one hundred were lying 

 dead on the beach, but they looked small as they were 

 scattered over the shore of the bay. The excitement 

 of driving in the shoals is said to be an event not easily 

 forgotten. It was all over by the time I arrived. 



I would not shoot a seal now, but youths are 

 murderous by instinct, and so was I. There was 

 much of interest in the conditions under which they 

 were shot. The early rise in the long summer day, 

 the row to the leeward side of a likely holm, or small 

 island ; creeping up to a good vantage point and 

 waiting there until the head of a seal is seen to bob 



