16 Daring the voyage whales frequently came near the ship, blowing water from their spouts like a jet from a fountain They rise to the surface, give « ne “blow,” sometimes throwing the water 30 or 40 feet high, then instantly disappear. We thought a whaling ship would have had a good time here, but we learned that “it is only the very rarest species of whale that is the object of the fishery, and these common ones, the largest creatures upon the planet, may whisk their SO feet of worthless tallovv round a whaler without fear of any missile more dangerous than a biscuit.” Owing to this the finner, with its good-for-nothing cousin the hunchback whale, abounds in these Arctic seas As the day wore on the Westman Islands appeared in all their magnificence, rising up like columns a thousand feet above the sea ; there are fourteen of them, but only one, well called Home Island, is inhabited, and as we drop anchor in the bay we observe that every ledge, and nook, and cranny of the bold, brown, beetling crags that frown down upon us is crowded with sea-fowl, whose screams fill the air with a continuous clamour—it is truly the sea-bird’s home. These Islands were settled by a colony of Irish slaves over ten centuries ago. A Norwegian pirate cruising on the Emeral Isle landed, captured a number of men, women and children, and carried them off. The passage not being pleasant they rose on their captors, slew them, threw them overboard, and went ashore at the first land they met with. Why they remained on this desolate spot is a secret of the past; most likeiy they had no other alterna- tive, and freedom on the rock was, at all events, better than slavery under a cruel Viking. We wondered and anxiously listened to hear if any of their native “ brogue” could be discerned in their conversation, but decided it had all been frozen up long ago. Doubly secure as these people are by their poverty and almost inaccessible cliffs, it is surprising to think they have been attacked and pillaged several times by sea-rovers One English pirate, named “Gentleman John,” paid them a visit in the sixteenth century, and couiteously plundered the houses, pillaged the church, and carried off their sacred relics. After this exploit he returned to England, where the king had him hung, and honestly returned the church ornaments.

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