BARRY OUTDONE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3934, 28 February 1884, Page 4

BARRY OUTDONE.

Captain William Jackson Barry had butter look to his laurels. The London B.iily Telegraph tells tho following amusing story :—"Sot very often docs ahoy get tho chance of sitting on the blowhole- of a live whaio, nor, probably, having done so once, would he bo likely to repeat the experiment, at least, not if ho had read or been told of what happened the other day to v Shetland lad who had inadvertently Hoatcd himself upon tho nostrils of a stranded Behemoth. This voracious narrative states that the whale had drifted in-shore, having gone aground upon an ice-Jloo, and so been ■washed bodily out of deep water on to one of the inlands. An old fisherman, with his boy, had arranged to fasten a rope or chain round the creature's tail, and it was at this moment of triumph that the youngsler is said to Inivo seated upon the forehead of tho leviathan. Becoming aware of some obstruction to its breathing, it gave a great snort, and sneezed tho boy fifty yards out to sea. Tho boy, it is added, Was not hurt, but much surprised, as Well ho might be. To Hit down unconcernedly on the orifice of an active volcano, aud bo suddenly blown up into the air, is calculated to astonish even the most phlogiuatio temporainent. Asiatic apathy could hardly stand unmoved such an unexpected aud forcible test, much less a frivolous urchin, who, very proud, nj duubt, of hi.s lofty perch, found himself all of a sudden puffed up beyond all his expectations, and his small graceless body flying through space like a marble from a blow-pipo. And thero is not much on a whale's head to catch hold of. It is smooth, polished, and sloping, so that when tho impetus camo from beneath up he had to go, like a clay pigeon off the trap. There was no help for it, and go he did, uOft up in tho air and 60yds out to sea. It was a lesKon to him not to go about sitting on whales' blowholes—at any rate until the}' are securely xslugged up —and we may be tolerably certain that even if that Shetland boj* lives to become the oldest inhabitant of the island he will never again be found taking ft seat on the escape-pipo of even the smallest cetacean."