MI SCELLAN EOUS.

From Chambers Edinburgh Journal.
LIFE IN SHETLAND-A WHALE HUNT.
{"newspaper_name": "The Columbian fountain.", "edition": "01", "page": "p1", "byline": ""}
{"character_count": 1952, "word_count": 348, "ccnet_language_score": [0.9846000075340271], "ccnet_perplexity": [1035.4000244140625], "fasttext_language": ["en"]}
LIFE IN SHETLAND-A WHALE HUNT.


AS general account of Nour whale hunts
might be comparatively interesting, shall
here give description of a particular one,
which occurred few years ago, and was
attended by circumstances of unusual ami
nation. The scene was in one of the snug
and-locked bays with which the Shetland
Isles abound, opening round the point Of an
adjacent island into the N North Sea /; the time
was calm dull winter day.


1t was yet the morning twilight, when a
messenger was sent to the proprietor of the
land lying around the bay to inform him
that school Of whales were lying in the
narrow sound leading into it. Not long did
the laird indulge in sloth after this sum
mons and in few minutes he was up and
dressed, issuing orders all tie while lie per-
formed his hasty toilet, and sending messen-
gers to his tenants, desiring them to hasten
to put themselves under his direction at the
scene of action. In an incredible short
space Of time many boats were gathered,
filled with men and boys armed with weap-
ons, and instruments Of noise as well as
those of murdef Happy was he who could
boast the possession Of some rusty ances-
trail sword or cu0ass, or a harpoon acquired
in some Greenland voyage; and in absence
of, or sometimes in addition to all these, the
boats were loaded with stones of all sizes,
hastily gathered from the beach at starting.
The laird was provided with a heavy gun
loaded with two balls, weapon which had
been fatal to the lives Of many seals and
otters. The boats proceeded singly, and in
silence, the men straining every nerve, in
suppressed but bursting eagerness, IN order
to get between the whales and the expanse
of the ocean. When all were collected in
close phalanx--to which boats from neigh
boring shores, and lairds from adjacent
islands were each moment gathering, the
chase commenced in earnest, Every voice
was raised in shouts and wild cries show
ers Of stones were flung by every hand not