Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-12-27
MIR. wAKEmAN,s JoURNEyINGs.
At Lerwick, Observation-Disclosures of
the Shetland Is1anders-KelP-Gath
erfng and Sheep-Raising-Hos
: and Knit yyooIens-WhaIingS Ships.
IFRwIrK Shetland Oct %


erfng and Sheep-Raising-Hosi
and Knit wooIens-WhalingS Ships.
LERwIcK, Shetland, Oct. 90.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
Whatever their condition in the past, it
would be difficult to find any lowly peo-
pie more generally prosperous and COM
Portable than are the Shetland Islanders at
the present time. Their industries are
kelp-g gathering and burning, sheep-raising,
hand-making of hosiery and other knit
goods, whaling and the universal fishing.
The mineral wealth of the islands has so
far been of little Importance. At Sand
lodge, opposite Mousa Island and its ia
nous Pictish tower, there is an abandoned
copper mine with idle and rusting ma
chinery. Over against grim Fitful Head
found another abandoned mine, where, in
search for copper, thousands of tons of
iron pyrites had been thrown into the sea.
!. .Chromate quarries at Baltasound, in the
North Isles, have remained untouched for
years: while in Bressay Island are slate
quarries, but the states are too heavy for
modern houses, and the thicker strata are
utilized for paving stones, Lerwick being
paved with 'sB-essay frgs."
The manufacture of kelp was formerly
carried on extensively, and still is means
of subsistence by many. This kelp-gath-
ering and burning, which Is still source
of livelihood ON the Arran Islands, Ire
land, on the west coast of Scotland at
Three, in the Argyleshire Hebrides, and in
many places on the Shetland coasts, is
dangerous and destructive of health.
Though the word 'skelp" is often applied
to seaweed. it is really the product from
the burning of seaweed, from which the
alkali soda, once so largely used in the
manufacture of glass and soap, was OBJ
| tanned, and from which iodine is still Sc
| cured. The seaweeds are called by natives
"tangles." They are detached from the
sides of rocks, and frequently great storms
sweep fortunate piles of the elammy stuff
| in upon the lodges of the gios. They are
gathered, stacked, matched and dried for
several weeks, and in the autumn are
burned in rude open pits or ovens along
the shore, the ashes fusing into solid
substance of the density of freestone,
which is broken up before being sent tC
the market. Kelp gathering furnishe:
many picturesque scenes along the desolat'
shores, as women and children are largely
employed.
The hosiery and other knit woolen!
which come from the hands of Shetland
women are famous. They are as ceaseles
knitters as those of Connemara and Done
gal, in Ireland, and produce fabrics o
wondrous delicacy of texture. The prep
aration of the yarn has much to do wit
the lightness and softness of their work
Fleeces are never shorn. The cruel prac
tice of ''rueing," or removing the woo
from sheep by pulling it out by the root
in handfulls, is still prevalent. The fines
wool is thus procured; and the averag
weight of the most prized fieeces is bu
! two pounds. The knit-work of thes
, nimble- fingered women formerly consiste
only of coarse woolen stuffs, and fin
Shetland shawls did not become commo
l until about 1910. The finest collection
7 knit goods ever produced in the islant
was presented to the Princess of Wales Q
= her marriage in 1868. This season a lars
a shawl was sold at Lerwick for seventy-f'
}, dollars. 1t only weighed two and fiv
I eighths ounces; and another which so
o for forty-five dollars, weighed but two al
. one-half ounces. Some of the designs a
marvelously beautiful.
g The Peterhead and other whaling shi
formerly completed their crews at LIE
wick, and these times were always perio
,r of great activity. OF late years She
r lands interest in whaling has been prin
d pally confined to driving the monste
], ashore. This exciting work is often Il
u mendously profitable. In 1916 shoal
re one thousand five hundred and forty &c
OF ing" whales were driven ashore in Que
7e dale Bay, the southernmost bay of Sh
s. land. lying between Sumburgh and Fit
d, Head; and in June of the present year
u, shoal of several hundred was successful
~ landed on the east coast. Until quite
Gently these shore whalers were lily
it Quilted for their capture. The financia
d, omniverous landlord, called the "lair
ey here, true to his octopus instincts, claim
Ia, the right, up to 1889, to tax the poor Sh
landers one-half of the entire proceeds
to all whales driven into shoal water opl
i'm site, or upon the shores of their domai
nd "a sort of riparian right on the Almigl
wv for what was sent to save man from st
re- vation on account of rents and other b
lily dens imposed by the laird himself"
er- old Shetlander explained to me. As
he value of the blubber will average thi
,ut dollars per ton, the 'lairdn often thus
MT cured from two to five thousand dollars
nd his s'right" in a single catch. From Il
of to 1898 the "lairds' were consider
nd enough to rob the whalers of but O
ng third. In September of that year
-ou claim WIS resisted in the courts;
her whalers won their cause; and the flair
all have since been compelled to cont
hat themselves with the meager enjoyment
the witnessing, rather than profiting by,
do hazardous work.
81 When drove of ''ca'ing" whales apr
the on the coast the news spreads like oil-dr
leir on marble. As the whole town of
ody Ives, Cornwall, goes mad when a shoal
all pitchers is sighted, so does every live S
ny lander desert every other vocation, evel
o wedding, to join in the "drive." A I
tile is made by the men for the boats, W
his women and children wildly collect g
pr ammunition, harpoons, scythes, Ian
She knives and even bags or stone, inc
lust anything portable which may assist in
IAN hoped-for destruction. The whalers n
She all haste and splendid cunning in get