Whale Hunting With Gun And Camera; A Naturalist's Account Of The Modern Shore-whaling Industry, Of Whales And Their Habits, And Of Hunting Experiences

HOME there are, no doubt, who may look into this small volume with the expectation af obtaining from it such a general knoivledge of the Valley of the Wharfe as they could wish to possess of the whole of the Island in which they live, wlletlrer remarkable for beauty or otherwise. Such are tradesmen, farmers, alld almost every class of the middle rank. To those, also, who may take up the book for amusement, such a summary as is here proposed, will be highly necessary, that whilst they are going over the description of its curiosities they may assign to them their proper places, without confusion entering in their ideas. The Wharfe is one of those rivers which add so greatly to the beauty of Yorkshire, and contribute so much to the aid of its commerce. It rises towards tlle limits be tween Vyestmoreland and the West-Riding at no distance also from thk Coui ty of Lancaster and after pursuing a S. East ern course of between sixty and seventy piles it mines its waters with the Ouse, that mancl reservoir of all tlie fine streams of the a large province in wlich it flows. This junction of the two rivers is formed near a little village called Nun-Appleton, at tlie most 4 sbuihern point of the Ainsty, a Division, h Yorkshire, of which the Wl arfeis for above a dozen miles the boundary. Wharfdaleproper extends no farther along this lino than about twenty miles, beginning in the IYest with the most eastern point of that lnountainous tract named Craven, and finishing at IIarewood, in the East. JVharldale, and not IVhnrfdak, was till within the last 30 or O years tlle usual term applied to this part of the mllej- but no man of taste can refuse to adopt the more modern name, vhichh as its derivationso directly from the cllaming stream that animates the-scene. The valley, that accompanies the river from its source to its extinctioii in the Ouse, has certainly a right to the appellation of Wharfdale but veb poxerful reasons, to B eth . e -. r with the sanctiqn of custom haye de tgrm ned th at it shoula be only to this i, distinguished part of thc valley. These powerful reasons are, tlie insignificancy of the deep but rrarrow dell that for nlaily miles encloses the river in the West, the low state of Agriculture aild unconquerable barrenness of soil in many of those parts and the dull flatness which in the East entirely takes away the beautiful majesty and endless va riety attending a hilly country. Hence lierc was a necessity of conveying an ihes of the superiority, in the nanle, of . Yharfdale. On each side, the borders of IVharfdale are marked by lofty ranges of steeps, chiefly crown ed with frowning rocks. These are continued, in heaving crandeur, L the whole length of the valley with only two interruptions oile where the tributary streamof the IVashburn is hastening with quick impatience to throw itself into the IYlrarfe the other wilere a fertile plain ope ls the valley towards Air dale...