314 WHALES.* 



Account of the pears to have been sent by Sir Joseph Banks to La Cepede^ 



w"i^!ch}reqi?nt ^^° ^^^ ^^^'^^ '^ "^ ^'' " Histoire des Cdtacees." 



the north coast 



ofScotland,&c. - 



The small whales hi question, of whatever species they be, 

 afford a great deal of blubber ; and it appears surprising that 

 the valite of the oil does not induce some of the Shetland and 

 Orkney gentlemen or some of the few substantial tenants, to 

 prepare and keep in readiness an ample store of harpoons, 

 ropes, whale-lances, blubber-knives, and other implements, so 

 as to enable their dependants to avail themselves, more com- 

 pletely than is 'at present possible, of the occasional visits of 

 those cetaceous inhabitants of the northern seas. Harpoons 

 and lines are indispensably necessary. The best harpoons, I 

 believe, may be commissioned from Prestonpans, at the rate of 

 7s. 6d. each. A single line for each harpoon would suffice, 

 and that line needs not be of the thickness required for Green- 

 land whales: the Greenland whale-lines cost 51. but a line suf- 

 ficient for the small whales might be had for 2l. sterling. Each 

 boat might carry six harpoons and lines, provided only care 

 were taken to keep the lines clear of each other. Each man 

 should be furnished with a lance, i. e. a kind of spear with a 

 wooden handle six feet long, costing 5 s. each. Blubber-knives 

 may be had at 2s. 6d. each. The hooked instrumenLcalled 

 ioinakawk or piddliawk, is also very useful for laying hold of the 

 blubber, and keeping it on the stretch till it be cut. If the 

 blubber is to be barrelled, it should be allowed to lie exposed 

 to the air for a day or two, till incipient putrefaction be per- 

 ceived ; for the swelling that accompanies the commencement 

 of that process would infallibly burst the barrels It is scarce 

 * necessary to add, that a large caldron would be found very use- 



ful for boiling down the blabber. 



The exertions of the Shetland tenants, with respect to such 

 droves of small whales, must certainly be much cramped by 

 the usage of the Qountry, which 1 have now to relate, and 

 ' whicli appears to me equally destitute of foundation in law and 

 in equity. I shall state the usage in the words of Mr. Giffard 

 of Busta, which are certainly above all exception: " As soon as 

 the whiles are got ashore {i. e, by the exertions of the people, 



who. 



