inhabitants. The general opinion is that they were first settled by a colony of Norwegians; but the Rev. James Gordon thinks it more probable that the Picts were the first who settled in them, for the following reasons:-1. We have no accounts in ancient history that the Danes were possessed of these islands previous to the year 830; when the Picts were so completely defeated and dispersed by Kenneth II. that they were obliged to desert their ancient territories and fly northward, as recorded by Bede, Boece, and all our ancient historians. 2. The Frith that divides Caithness from Orkney is often called the Pictland Frith, from a great number of the Picts having been drowned in it in their flight from the Scots after Kenneth's victory. As the whole of the Picts who got safe landed in Orkney could not be accommodated in that country, a great number of them set sail again for the next land which was in view, viz. the island of Fowla; but, this being still too small to accommodate them all, they were at a loss what course to take, till some of them observing a thick mist, directly north-east of Fowla, they steered towards it, and the first person who observed the land cried out, There is zet land, and we shall be safe,'-zet being the ancient spelling at least, if it was not, the pronunciation of the word yet; and hence it was named Zetland. This use of the Z instead of Y was retained in Scotland 30 late as the reign of queen Mary, when books in the Scottish language were printed at Edinburgh with the words ze, zow, and zieres, for ye, you, and yours. And the same orthography is still retained in Mackenzie, Menzies, Zuill (for Yule), and some other surnames in Scotland. The Picts accordingly settled on the Zetland Isles, which till that period had never been inhabited, and erected broughs or castles on the highest hills in each of the islands, that by lighting fires in them they might all have speedy warning of the approach of an enemy within less than an hour. Having thus secured themselves they sent ambassadors to the court of Norway, soliciting assistance to recover their ancient country from the Caledonians. Harold, then king of Norway, being a warlike prince, readily complied, espoused their cause, and sent a powerful fleet, which landed on the isle of Fetlar; but, as no safe anchorage could be procured on that coast, they sailed to the isle of Unst, to a bay which still retains his name, being called Harold's Wick; and this is still the tradition of the country respecting this name. Harold remained in this bay with his fleet till he had collected all the Picts in Scotland able to bear arms; when he set sail for the coast of Sutherland and Caithness; both of which countries he soon conquered, and they remained tributary to the crown of Norway till the end of the twelfth century; when William the Lion, king of Scots, conquered the Norwegians, and re-annexed these two countries to Scotland. The Picts, being thus frustrated in their hopes of recovering their ancient dominions, contented themselves with returning to Orkney and Zetland again; and, being joined by a great number of Danish adventurers, they intermarried together, and became one people, acknowledging the king of Denmark as their sovereign. At last they were finally ceded by

Christian IV., king of Denmark and Norway, to king James VI. by way of dowry, with his daughter the princess Anne. See SCOTLAND.

The inhabitants are a stout well-made people; the lower sort of a swarthy complexion, hardy, robust, and laborious people. Generally speaking they get their bread by fishing in all weathers in their yawls, which are little bigger than Gravesend wherries; live hardily, and in the summer season mostly on fish; their drink, which, in reference to the British dominions, is peculiar to the country, is called bland, and is a sort of butter-milk, long kept, and very sour. Many live to a great age; while others, by drinking great quantities of malt spirits of the very worst sort, are afflicted with an inveterate scurvy; but the majority enjoy as good health as in any other country in Europe. They have no great propensity to agriculture, and are persuaded that their country is not fit for it. But they are very successful in their pasture grounds, which are kept well enclosed, in good order, and, together with their commons, supply them plentifully with beef and mutton. They pay their rents generally in butter at Lammas, and in money at Martinmas. As they find no difficulty in providing for a family they marry very early, and a bachelor is considered as a sort of phenomenon. All that is requisite to enter on a married life in Shetland is a cow, a small hut, a pot, a yawl and fishing-tackle, and a rug or blanket. With these, though their crops could not maintain them above eight months in the year, yet, by the immense quantities of fish they catch, the cheapness of provisions in general, and the abundance of fuel, they live as comfortably, or more so, than most people of the same rank on the continent of Scotland."

The chief of the thirty-three inhabited islands of Shetland are, MAINLAND, YELL, UNST, BRESSAY, BURRAY, QUARFF, HAVERA, HOUSE, Noss, FETLAR, FAIR, FOWLA, PAPASTOUR, the RHOES, SKERRIES, TRONDRAY, and WHALSAY. See these articles. The inhabitants of the Shetland Islands elect delegates, who join with those of the Orkney Islands in electing a representative in the British parliament. There are considerable quantities of marle in different islands, though they use but little; hitherto there has been no chalk found; limestone and freestone there are in the southern parts of the main land in great quantities, and also in the neighbouring islands, particularly Fetlar; and considerable quantities of slate, very good in its kind. No mines have been hitherto wrought, though there are in many places appearances of several kinds of metal. Some solid pieces of silver, it is said, have been turned up by the plough. In some of the smaller isles there are strong appearances of iron. See Jameson's Mineralogy.

The black cattle in this country are in general of a larger sort than in Orkney, which is owing to their having more extensive pastures; a clear proof that still farther improvements might be made in respect to size. Their horses, called Shelties, are small, but strong, stout, and well shaped, live very hardy, and to a great age. They have likewise a breed of small swine, the flesh of which, when fat, is esteemed very deli

cious. They have also a breed of small sheep, whose wool is equal, if not superior, to the finest Spanish wool. Otters, seals, and other amphibious animals, abound greatly on the coasts. They have no goats, hares, or foxes; in general no wild or venomous creatures of any kind; but there are rats in some few islands. They have no moor-fowl, which is the more remarkable as there are every where immense quantities of heath; but there are many sorts of wild and water-fowls, particularly the dunter, clack, and solan geese, swans, ducks, teal, whaps, foists, lyres, kittiwaiks, gulls, maws, plovers, cormorants, &c. There is likewise the amber goose, which is said to hatch her egg under her wing. Eagles, hawks, ravens, crows, mews, &c., abound here; and every person who kills an eagle is entitled to a reward of 5s. from the commissioners of supply.

All these islands are well watered; and there are every where excellent springs, some of them mineral and medicinal. They have, indeed, no rivers; but many pleasant burns, rills, or rivulets, of different sizes; in some of the largest they have admirable trouts, some of which are of fifteen and even of twenty pounds weight; and some of the larger rivulets even have salmon. They have likewise many fresh-water lakes, well stored with trouts and eels, and in most of them there are also large and fine flounders, in some very excellent cod. These fresh-water lakes, if the country was better peopled, and the common people more at their ease, are certainly capable of great improvement. They have, besides, haddocks, whitings, turbot, and a variety of other sea-fish. In many of the inlets there are prodigious quantities of excellent oysters, lobsters, mussels, cockles, and other shell-fish. Amber, ambergris, and other spoils of the ocean, are frequently found upon the coasts.

SHETLAND, MAINLAND OF, the largest of the Shetland islands, extends sixty miles from north to south, and is from six to eighteen in breadth. The interior parts are mountainous, craggy, and barren; but along the shores are verdant spots. The coast is so deeply indented with voes, or in-. lets of the sea, that no part of the island is five miles distant from some creek or harbour; while the extent of the coast, including all its windings, may be 300 miles. The hills run, in the longest direction of the island, from north to south; but none of them is very high, except Rona, near the north-west coast, which is between 1500 and 2000 feet above the level of the sea. On the highest eminence is a watch-house constructed of four large stones, and two covering the top for a roof. It will contain six or seven persons. The east side of the island is comparatively low; but the cliffs on the western coast are steep and irregular. There are many small fresh-water lakes, and some mineral springs impregnated with iron. Remains of what are called Picts' houses abound in this island. The soil is unfavorable for vegetation; and agriculture is little attended to. The best crops are black oats and bear, which would not supply the inhabitants nine months in the year. The hills are mostly covered with heath, and afford good pasture for black cattle and sheep, which, after receiving the mark of their owner, run wild, without the attendance of any shepherd. A conVOL. XX.

siderable number of sheep and black cattle are purchased by the Lerwick merchants, who kill them, and either send them to Leith, or to the Greenland and other vessels which rendezvous in Bressay Sound. They have also a very small but hardy breed of horses, called Shetland poneys; and a peculiar breed of swine, the flesh of which is esteemed very delicate. Eagles, hawks, ravens, and other birds of prey, are numerous, and so destructive to the lambs that the commissioners of supply give a crown for every eagle destroyed. Swans, in great numbers, annually visit this island, and geese and ducks abound. Bare of trees except roan and willow. Metallic ore found, iron, copper, lead, and silver. A copper mine was formerly wrought at present its chief mineral production is limestone and excellent slate. Manufactories of woollen and linen are conducted on a small scale, but the chief occupation is fishing. The island is divided into eight parishes, and contains about 14,000 souls.

A Description of the Shetland Islands, comprising an Account of their Geology, Scenery, Antiquities, and Superstitions, has recently been published by Dr. Hibbert, and will be perused with interest by the geologist, the antiquary, and the general reader. We limit our extracts at present to those objects of general science which he so ably brings forward.

Account of the pursuit and capture of a drove of whales.—I had landed at Mr. Leisk's of Burra Voe in Yell, when a fishing-boat arrived with the intelligence that a drove of Ca'ing whales had entered Yell Sound. Females and boys, on hearing the news, issued from the cottages in every direction, making the hills reverberate with joyful exclamations of the event. The fishermen armed themselves with a rude sort of harpoon, formed from long iron-pointed spits; they hurried to the strand, launched their boats, and at the same time stored the bottom of them with loose stones. Thus was a large fleet of yawls soon collected from various points of the coast, which proceeded towards the entrance of the sound. Some slight irregular ripples among the waves showed the place where a shoal of whales were advancing. They might be seen sporting on the surface of the ocean for at least a quarter of an hour, disappearing and rising again to blow. The main object was to drive them upon the sandy shore of Hamna Voe, and it was soon evident that, with their enemy in their rear, they were taking this direction. Most of the boats were ranged in a semicircular form, being at the distance of about fifty yards from the animals. A few skiffs, however, acted as a force of reserve, keeping at some little distance from the main body, so that they might be in readiness to intercept the whales, should they change their course. sable herd appeared to follow certain leaders; who, it was soon feared, were inclined to take any other route than that which led to the shallows on which they might ground. Immediately the detached crews rowed with all their might, in order to drive back the fugitives, and, by means of loud cries and large stones thrown into the water, at last succeeded in causing them to re sume their previous course. In this temporary diversion from the shore the van of the boats was

The

thrown into confusion; and it was a highly interesting scene to witness the dexterity with which the Shetlanders handled their oars, and took up a new semicircular position in rear of the whales. Again the cetacea hesitated to proceed into the inlet, and again a reserve of boats intercepted them in their attempt to escape, while a fresh line of attack was assumed by the main body of the pursuers. It was thus that the whales were at length compelled to enter the harbour of Hamna Voe. Then did the air resound with the shouts that were set up by the boatmen, while stones were flung at the terrified animals, in order to force them upon the sandy shore of a small creek; but, before this object could be effected, the whales turned several times, and were as often driven back. None of them, however, were yet struck with the harpoon; for, if they were to feel themselves wounded in deep water, they would at all hazards betake themselves to the open sea. The leaders of the drove soon began to ground, emitting at the same time a faint murmuring cry, as if for relief: the sand at the bottom of the bay was disturbed, and the water was losing its transparency. The shoal of whales which followed increased, as they struck the shore, the muddiness of the bay; they madly rolled about, irresolute from the want of leaders, uncertain of their course, and so intimidated by the shouts of the boatmen, and the stones that were thrown into the water, as to be easily prevented from regaining the ocean. Crowds of natives of each sex, and of all ages, were anxiously collected on the banks of the Voe, hailing with loud acclamations the approach of these visitants from the northern seas; and then began the work of death. Two men, armed with sharp iron spits, rushed breast high into the water, and, seizing each a fin of the nearest whale, bore him unresistingly along to the shallowest part of the shore. One of the deadly foes of this meekest of the inhabitants of the sea deliberately lifted up a fin, and beneath it plunged into the body of the animal the harpoon that he grasped, so as to reach the large vessels of the heart. A long state of insensibility followed, succeeded by the most dreadful convulsions; the victim lashed the water with his tail, and deluged the land for a considerable distance: another deathlike pause ensued; throes still fainter and fainter were repeated with shorter intermissions, until at length he lay motionless on the strand. The butchers afterwards set off in a different direction, being joined by other persons assuming the same functions. Female whales, appearing by their hasty and uncertain course to have been wrested from their progeny, and sucklings no less anxiously in quest of those from whose breasts they had received their nutriment, were, by the relentless steel of the harpooner, severally arrested in their pursuit. Numerous whales which had received their death-wound soon lined the bay, while others, at a greater distance, were rolling about among the muddy and crimsoned waves, doubtful whether to flee, and appearing like oxen to wait the return of their slaughterer. Wanton boys and females, in their anxiety to take a share of the massacre, might be observed to rankle with new tortures the gaping wound

that had been made; while, in their blood-thirsty exultation, they appeared to surpass those whose more immediate duty it was to expedite the direful business. At length the sun set upon a bay that seemed one sheet of blood: not a whale was allowed to escape; and the strand was strewed over with carcases of all sizes, measuring from six to twenty feet, and amounting to not fewer than eighty in number. Several of the natives then went to their homes in order to obtain a short repose; but, as the twilight in this northern latitude was so bright as to give little or no token of the sun's departure, many were unremittingly intent upon securing the profit of their labor, by separating the blubber, which was of the thickness of three or four inches. It was supposed that the best of these whales would yield about a barrel of oil; and it was loosely computed that they were on an average worth from £2 to £3 sterling a piece, the value of the largest being as much as £6.

6

The division of the profits that accrue from these whales was, from very ancient times, regulated by strict laws, which on the introduction of feudality varied from those of Denmark. As soon,' says Mr. Gifford, as the whales are got ashore, the bailie of the parish is advertised, who comes to the place, and takes care that none of them are embezzled; and he acquaints the admiral thereof, who forthwith goes there, and holds a court, where the fiscal presents a petition, narrating the number of whales, how and where drove ashore; and that the judge thereof may give judgment thereupon, according to law and the country practice. Whereupon the admiral ordains the whales driven on shore to be divided into three equal parts; one of the parts to belong to the admiral, one part to the salvers, and one-third to the proprietor of the ground on which the whales are driven ashore; and he appoints two honest men, who are judicially sworn, to divide them equally. The minister or vicar claims the tithes of the whole, and commonly gets it; the bailie also claims the heads for his attendance, and, if the admiral finds he has done his duty, the heads are decerned to him, otherwise not.' In consequence, however, of frequent disputes that took place on this tripartite division of the whales, the earl of Morton, who was invested with the droits of admiralty, appears to have compounded with the landed proprietors of Shetland, by agreeing to accept a definite sum for his share of the capture; but his successors have, I believe, relinquished the claim altogether.

Account of the ling fishery at the Haaf.-On the north of the parish of Northmavine the low hilly ridges, formed by the sea into deep fissures or caverns, terminate in a line of ragged coast, agreeably diversified by a long narrow peninsula of green land jutting out far into the Northern Ocean, which is named Feideland, an appellation of true Scandinavian origin, that is explained by Debes in his description of Feroe. He observes that where grass is found so abundant and juicy, that oxen feed thereon both winter and summer, such places are named Feidelands; and it is very remarkable, he adds, that where there are any Feidelands they invariably turn to the north-east and north. Every where the coast is

awfully wild, the peninsula is broken on each side into steep precipices, exhibiting now and then a gaping chasm, through which the sea struggles, while numerous stacks rise from the surface of a turbulent ocean,-the waves beating around them in angry and tumultuous roar. This is a great station for the ling fishery, which commences in the middle of May, and ends on the 12th of August. When any fishermen resort, for the first time, to a convenient place of this kind, they are allowed by the law to build for themselves huts, on any site which may be unenclosed, uncultivated, and at a distance of not more than 100 yards from the high water-mark. These are constructed of rude stones, without any cement, being made no larger than is sufficient to contain a six-oared boat's crew. The men form the roof of thin pieces of wood, on which they lay turf;-they then strew a little straw upon the ground, and snatch from their severe labors a short repose. On the narrow isthmus of low marshy land, that connects the peninsula of Feideland to the mainland, is interspersed, with all the disorder of a gypsey encamp ment, a number of these savage huts named summer lodges, and in the centre of them is a substantial booth, used by a factor for curing fish. Here I met with excellent accommodation, owing to the kindness of Mr. Hoseason, who had sent from his house at Lochend every refreshment I might need, together with a comfortable bed for the evening. Feideland is a place possessing no little interest; a remarkably busy scene is presented by the numerous crews sailing to the Haaf, or returning from it laden with fish;-some men are busily engaged in weighing the stock of ling, cod, and tusk, as it is brought in to the factors; others in spreading their lines on the rocks to dry, or in cooking victuals for their comrades who may be employed on the haddock grounds, or in brushing, slitting, and salting the fish that are brought to the door of the booth. But to the naturalist, Feideland presents attractions of no mean kind; the numerous rare marine productions that are continually drawn up by the lines of the fishermen, which a small perquisite might induce them to preserve and bring to the shore, would richly repay him for lingering several days in such a station.

I shall now take an opportunity of giving an account of the Ling Fishery, as it is prosecuted at the Haaf.

The Haaf is a name applied to any fishingground outside of the coast, where ling, cod, or tusk, may be caught. Not much above a century ago, the fishery for ling and cod was prosecuted much nearer shore than it is now, and fishing places, designated Raiths, were pointed out by certain landmarks called Meiths, so that every one knew his own raith, and any undue encroachment upon it was considered no less illegal and actionable, than if it had been upon a landed enclosure. The fishermen, however, at the present day, find it their interest to seek for ling at a much greater distance, even to the extent of thirty or forty miles. The men employed at the Haaf are from eighteen years of age and upwards. Six tenants join in a boat, their landlords importing for them frames ready modelled and cut out in

Norway, which, when put together, form a yawl of six oars, from eighteen to nineteen feet in keel, and six in beam; it is also furnished with a square sail. On the 25th of May, or on the 1st of June, the fishermen repair to their several stations. They either endeavour, with rod and line, to procure for bait the fry of the coalfish, of the age of twelve months, named piltocks, or they obtain at the ebb mussels and limpets; and then going out to sea, six miles or more, lay their lines for haddocks, and, after obtaining a sufficient supply of these fish, reserve them for bait.

The Feideland Haaf being thirty or forty miles from land, the fishermen endeavour to leave their station in the morning of one day, so as to be enabled to return in the course of the day following. And if, owing to boisterous weather, they have suffered long detention in their lodges, the first boat that is launched induces every weather-bound crew to imitate the example; it is, therefore, no unusual circumstance to see, in a fleet of yawls, all sails set, and all oars plied, nearly at the same instant of time. Each boat, in the first turn that it makes, observes the course of the sun, and then strives to be the first which shall arrive at the fishing station. Some few of the fishermen, during their voyage, superstitiously forbear to mention in any other name than one that is Norse, or in some arbitrary word of their own coinage, substituted for it, various objects, such, for instance, as a knife, a church, the clergyman, the devil, or a cat. When, after a tug of thirty or forty miles, the crew has arrived at the Haaf, they prepare to set their tows, which is the name they designate the lines by that are fitted with ling-hooks. Forty-five or fifty fathoms of tows constitute a bught, and each bught is fitted with from nine to fourteen hooks. It is usual to call twenty bughts a packie, and the whole of the packies that a boat carries is a fleet of tows. Thus, while a boat in the south or east of Shetland carries only two or three packies, a fleet of tows used on the Feideland Haaf amounts to no less than six, these being baited with seldom less than 1200 hooks, provided with three buoys, and extending to a distance of from 5000 to 6000 fathoms.

The depth at which ling are fished for varies from fifty to 100 fathoms. In setting the tows, one man cuts the fish used for bait into pieces, two men bait and set the lines, and the remaining three or four row the boat. They sink at certain distances what they call cappie-stanes, the first that is let down being called the steeth. These keep the tows properly fixed to the ground. When all this labor is finished, which, in moderate weather, requires three or four hours, and when the last buoy has floated, the fishermen rest for nearly two hours, and take their scanty sustenance; but it is lamentable to think that their poverty allows them nothing more than oatmeal bread, and a few gallons of water. Their severe labors have never yet excited the commiseration of the British government; for, owing to the excessive duty on spirits, they can rarely afford to carry with them the smallest supply of whisky. At length one man, by means of the buoy-rope, undertakes to haul up the tows,-another extricates the fish from the hooks, and throws them into a place in the stern named the shot,—a third

guts them and deposits their livers and heads in the middle of the boat. Along with the ling that is caught, there is a much less quantity of cod and of the gadus brosme or tusk; these are all valuable acquisitions. Six to ten wet lings are about a hundred weight, and hence six or seven score of fish are reckoned a decent haul,-fifteen or sixteen a very good one,-twenty scores of ling are rarely caught, but in such a case garbage, heads, and small fish, are all thrown overboard, nor can these lighten the boat so much as that she will not appear, according to the phrase of the fishermen, just lippering with the water. The skate and halibut which may be taken are reserved to supply the tables of the fishermen. That formidable looking fish the stone-biter (anarhichus lupus) is also esteemed good eating. When all the tows are heaved up, they are deposited in the bow of the boat. If the weather be moderate, a crew does not need to be detained at the Feideland Haaf more than a day and a half. But too often a gale comes on,-the men are reluctant to cut their lines, and the most dreadful consequences ensue. About two years ago Mr. Watson, the respectable minister of Northmavine, communicated to the editor of an Edinburgh paper a striking instance of the misfortunes to which the fishermen are liable. In speaking of a number of boats that went off to the Haaf, he remarked that, 'about the time they were laying their lines, it blew strong from the south-east, so that it was with much difficulty they could haul them in again. The storm increased and blew off land; two boats particularly were in great distress; they having lost their sails, and being quite worn out with fatigue, were able to do very little for their own safety. Luckily, the wind shifted to the westward, and on the third day the crews all reached land, completely exhausted with hunger and labor, having had nothing but a very little bread and some water. Two of the men, one in each of the boats which suffered most, died before they came to land, and the rest were not able to walk to their houses without assistance.'

Account of the Isle of Stenness, the Holes of Seraada, and the Grind of the Navir.-The Isle of Stenness, and the Skerry of Eshaness, appear at a short distance exposed to the uncontrolled fury of the Western Ocean. The isle presents a scene of unequalled desolation. In stormy winters huge blocks of stones are overturned, or are removed far from their native beds, and hurried up a slight acclivity to a distance almost incredible. In the winter of 1802 a tabular-shaped mass, eight feet two inches by seven feet, and five feet one inch thick, was dislodged from its bed, and removed to a distance of from eighty to ninety feet. I measured the recent bed from which a block had been carried away the preceding winter (A. D. 1818), and found it to be seventeen feet and a half by seven feet, and the depth two feet eight inches. The removed mass had been borne to a distance of thirty feet, when it was shivered into thirteen or more lesser fragments, some of which were carried still farther, from thirty to 120 feet. A block, nine feet twe inches by six feet and a half, and four feet thick, was hurried up the acclivity to a distance of 150

feet. Such is the devastation that has taken place amidst this wreck of nature. Close to the Isle of Stenness is the Skerry of Eshaness, formidably rising from the sea, and showing on its westerly side a steep precipice, against which all the force of the Atlantic seems to have been expended: it affords a refuge for myriads of kittiwakes, whose shrill cries, mingling with the dashing of the waters, wildly accord with the terrific scene that is presented on every side.

The fishing station of Stenness is occupied by the tenants of Messrs. Cheyne, who, from the liberal manner in which they are treated, bear the character of being the best fishermen in the country. About seventy boats are annually employed at the Stenness Haaf. It is computed that between the middle of May and the 12th of August, when the ling fishery ceases, a boat makes about eighteen trips to the Haaf. Most of the ling, cod, and tusk that are cured in Northmavine go to Ireland; other markets are found for them by Scottish and English merchants, in Barcelona, Lisbon, Ancona, and Hamburgh. The dangers that the boats run at the Haaf have often suggested the expediency of employing small decked vessels for the fishery. Accordingly, there was an undertaking of this kind set on foot about half a century ago, but it was in every respect ill managed, and failed.

Leaving Eshaness, where may be observed an immense block of granite, not less than three yards in diameter, thrown up by the sea, I pursued my way north, along a high gradually ascending ridge that impends the ocean, which is covered with the finest and softest sward that ever refreshed the tired feet of the traveller, being frequently resorted to by the inhabitants of Northmavine, on a fine Sabbath evening, as a sort of promenade. The verdure that embroiders this proud bank, on which numerous sheep continually feed, pleasingly harmonizes, on a calm day, with the glassy surface of the wide Atlantic; nor is the pleasure less perfect when the smooth coating of so luxuriant a green turf is contrasted with the naked red crags that form the precipice below, whitened with the spray of the breakers which continually dash against them with angry roaring. The rich surface of pasture that thus gradually shelves from the elevated ridge of the coast bears the name of the Villians of Ure;and well might we apply to this favoured spot of Thule the compliment that has been often. paid to some rich vale of England,- Fairies joy in its soil.' After a distance of three miles, this gladdening prospect of fertility is suddenly closed with the harsher features that Hialtland usually wears. Near the mountain lake of Houland, where a burgh, built on a holm close to its shore, displays its mouldering walls, the coast resumes its wild aspect.

A large cavernous aperture, ninety feet wide, shows the commencement of two contiguous immense perforations, named the Holes of Scraada, where, in one of them that runs 250 feet into the land, the sea flows to its utmost extremity. Each has an opening at a distance from the ocean, by which the light of the sun is partially admitted. Farther north other ravages of the ocean are displayed. A mass of rock, the average