223 
the following may throw some light upon the subject. On hoard 
a Yadso and Hamburgh Steamer, last summer, the Captain told 
mo tlftt a certain Herr Foin established 8 or 9 years ago at Yadso, 
a fishery for this species, at first his success was very small as it is 
difficult and dangerous in the extreme to take this Whale in the 
ordinary way, from its active habits and the great velocity with 
which it rushes through the water when struck by the harpoon ; 
of late years, however, ho has perfected his mode of attack, and 
kills 30 or 40 each season — he found the ordinary harpoon of 
little use, for the reasons above stated, and now makes use of a 
detonating shell, and seldom loses a fish. They are taken within 
a few miles of Vadsd, and towed into that port, where they are 
drawn up a slip by a winch and then stripped of their blubber ; the 
carcase is made into manure and the blubber refined on the spot. 
In the summer of 1874, they killed 35 whales, and this summer 
when my informant left Yadso, about the middle of July, they 
had already killed 32, and expected to take several more before 
the season finished. The Captain added that it was not a very 
paying business, but that Mr. Foin was a very charitable gentle- 
man and wished to find employment for the people. I think it 
highly probable that the majority of the Fin-whales which have 
been stranded of late yearn on the British Coast, may have been 
wounded in this fishery, and after death borne south by wind and 
currents to our shores. — T. Southwell. 
Note.— Since the above was written 1 have seen an account of 
Mr. Foin’s fishery in Lamont’s ‘ Yachting in the Arctic Seas.' 
Mr. Lamout gives no description of what he calls the “shell- 
harpeon,” but says it weighs twenty pounds and contains nearly 
a pound of powder. In Scammon’s ‘ Marine Mammals of the 
North-Western Coast of North America,' at p. 228 (foot-note), 
will be found a description of an apparatus known as “ Pierce’s 
Bomb-lance,” used in the American Whale-fishery, which appears 
to be a highly ingenious and effective instrument, speedy in its 
action and therefore much less cruel than the old harpoon and 
lance. — T.S. 
Martens, &c., in Suffolk in 1811. I have a cutting from a 
newspaper of the year 1811, by which it appears that at the 
t 2 
