Whale Slaughter.

Hastings Standard, Issue 174, 18 November 1896, Page 4

Whale Slaughter.

A large capture of whales under unusual circumstances, has according to a stall' correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, been made at Thorshaven, the capital of the Faroe Islands. The writer of the most interesting article was on the return journey from Reykjavik to Leith. anchored off Thorshavn awaiting the storage of a cargo of dried cod. Suddenly work stopped, there was a cry of " Grindeval!'' and a scene of tremendous excitement. The cause was a school of bottle-nosed whales that had appeared off the harbor, which is a natural whale trap, and all the inhabitants turned out to make a capture. P. >a!s went out rapidly to sea, and, forming a half-circle, drove the whales before them into the harbor, w here, as soon as the shallow water was reached, ; the slaughter began. The whales were i cut and prodded in all directions by

the- boatmen, and llit-ir dead carcases \\v;-.' pulii d ashore by means of ropes and grappling '.rons. 1>'»0 were tnken, and the -laughter was not a vuniou one, tLio Kesli of tiircs, which arc not Greenland or " Right" whales, and \ ieicl no v a alehone and little oil, is used by the Islanders for food, anil will be salted and.dried for winter use. The meat is said to be not unlike beef in flavor and appearance. The writer, as le says, •• assisted at an unforgettable spectacle—gruesome, no doubt, but undeniably exciting, and one such as seldom, if ever, comes in the way of the ordinary tourist."