Cradle of Noss, which is a sort of wooden chair, travelling from precipice to precipice on rings, which run upon two cables, stretched across over the gulf. We viewed this extraordinary contrivance from beneath, at the distance of perhaps 100 fathoms at least. The boatmen made light of the risk of crossing it, but it must be tremendous to a brain disposed to be giddy. Seen from beneath, a man in the basket would resemble a large crow or raven, floating between rock and rock. The purpose of this strange contrivance is to give the tenant the benefit of putting a few sheep upon the Holm, the top of which is level, and affords good pasture. The animals are transported in the cradle by one at a time, a shepherd holding them upon his knees. The channel between the Holm and the isle is passable by boats in calm weather, but not at the time when we saw it. Rowing on through a heavy tide, and nearer the breakers than any but Zetlanders would have ventured, we rounded another immensely high cape, called by the islanders the Noup of Noss, but by sailors Hengcliff, or Hang-Cliff, from its having a projecting appearance. This was the highest rock we had yet seen, though not quite perpendicular. Its height has never been measured: I should judge it exceeds 600 feet; it has been conjectured to measure 800 and upwards. Our steersman had often descended this precipitous rock, having only the occasional assistance of a rope, one end of which he secured from time to time round some projecting cliff. The collecting sea-fowl for their feathers was the object, and he might gain five or six dozen, worth eight or ten shillings, by such an adventure. These huge precipices abound with caverns, many of which

run much farther into the rock than any one has ventured to explore. We entered (with much hazard to our boat) one called the Orkney-man's Harbour, because an Orkney vessel run in there some years since to escape a French privateer. The entrance was lofty enough to admit us without striking the mast, but a sudden turn in the direction of the cave would have consigned us to utter darkness if we had gone in farther. The dropping of the sea-fowl and cormorants into the water from the sides of the cavern, when disturbed by our approach, had something in it wild and terrible.

After passing Hengcliff, or the Noup, the precipices become lower, and sink into a rocky shore, with deep indentations, call by the natives Gios. Here we would fain have landed to visit the cradle from the top of the cliff, but the surf rendered it impossible. We therefore rowed on like Thalaba ❝ in Allah's name" around the Isle of Noss, and landed upon the opposite side of the small sound which divides it from Brassa. Noss exactly resembles, in shape, Salisbury Craigs, supposing the sea to flow down the valley called the Hunter's Bog, and round the foot of the precipice. The eastern part of the isle is fine smooth pasture, the best I have seen in these isles, sloping upwards to the verge of the tremendous rocks which form its western front.

We had occasion to-day to make some cursory observations on the state of improvement in the agriculture of Zetland. We had the pleasure to spend the day with a gentleman of good property, who is an improver, and a moder te one. He has got a ploughman from Scotland, who acts as grieve, but as yet with the preju,

dices and inconveniences which usually attach themselves to the most salutary experiments. The ploughman complains that the Zetlanders work as if a spade or hoe burned their fingers, and that though they only get a shilling a-day, yet the labour of three of them does not exceed what one good hand in Berwickshire would do for 2s. 6d. The islanders retort, that a man can do no more than he can; that they are not used to be taxed to their work so severely; that they will work as their fathers did, and not otherwise; and at first the landlord found difficulty in getting hands to work under his Caledonian task-master. Besides, they find fault with his ho, and gee, and wo, when ploughing. "He speaks to the horse," they say, "and they gang-and there's something no canny about the man." In short, be tween the prejudices of laziness and superstition, the ploughman leads a sorry life of it: yet these prejudices are daily abating under the steady and indulgent management of the proprietor. Indeed, no where is improvement in agriculture more necessary. An old-fashioned Zetland plough is a real curiosity. It had but one handle, or stilt, and a coulter, but no sock; it ripped the furrow, therefore, but did not throw it aside. When this precious machine was in motion, it was dragged by four little bullocks, yoked a-breast, and as many ponies, harnessed, or rather strung, to the plough by ropes and thongs of raw hide. One man went before, walking backward, with his face to the bullocks, and pulling them forward by main strength. Another held down the plough by its single handle, and made a sort of slit in the earth, which two women, who close the procession, converted into a

VOL. V. PART II.

furrow, by throwing the earth aside with shovels. An antiquary might be of opinion that this was the very model of the original plough invented by Triptolemus; and it is but justice to Zetland to say, that these reliques of ancient agricultural art will soon have all the interest attached to rarity. We could only hear of one of these ploughs within three miles of Lerwick.

This and many other barbarous habits to which the Zetlanders were formerly wedded, seem only to have subsisted because their amphibious character of fishers and farmers induced them to neglect agricultural arts. A Zetland farmer looks to the sea to pay his rent; if the land finds him a little meal and kail, and if he be a very clever fellow, a few potatoes, it is very well. The more intelligent part of the landholders are sensible of all this, but argue like men of good sense and humanity on the subject. To have good farming, you must have a considerable farm, upon which capital may be laid out to advantage. But to introduce this change suddenly would turn adrift perhaps twenty families, who now occupy small farms pro indiviso, cultivating by patches, or rundale and runrig, what part of the property is arable, and stocking the pasture as a common upon which each family turns out such stock as they can rear, without observing any proportion as to the number which it can support In this way many townships, as they are called, subsist, indeed, but in a precarious and indigent manner. Fishing villages seem the natural resource for this excess of population, but, besides the expence of erecting them, the habits of the people are to be considered, who, with "one foot on sea and one on land," would be with

2 E

equal reluctance confined to either element. The remedy seems to be, that the larger proprietors should gradually set the example of better cultivation, and introduce better implements of agriculture. They will, by degrees, be imitated by the numerous class of inferior proprietors, and by their tenants, and as turnips and hay crops became more general, a better and heavier class of stock will naturally be introduced, and attention paid to preserving the breed.

The sheep in particular might be improved into a valuable stock, and would no doubt thrive, since the winters are very temperate. But I should be sorry that extensive pasture farms were introduced, as it would tend to diminish a population invaluable for the supply of our navy. The improvement of the arable land, on the contrary, would soon set them beyond the terrors of famine with which the islanders are at present occasionally visited; and, combined with fisheries, carried on not by farmers, but by real fishers, would amply supply the inhabitants, without diminish ing the export of dried fish. This separation of trades will in time take place, and then the prosperous days of Zetland will begin. The proprietors are already upon the alert, studying the means of gradual improvement, and no humane person would wish them to drive it on too rapidly, to the distress and perhaps destruction of the numerous tenants who have been bred under a different system.

Superstitions of the Zetlanders.

I have gleaned something of the peculiar superstitions of the Zetlanders, which are numerous and potent.

Witches, fairies, &c. are as numerous as ever they were in Teviotdale. The latter are called Trows, probably from the Norwegian Dwergh or dwarf, the D being readily converted into T. The dwarfs are the prime agents in the machinery of Norwegian superstition. The trows do not differ from the fairies of the lowlands, or Sighean of the Highlanders. They steal children, dwell within the interior of green hills, and often carry mortals into their recesses. Some yet alive pretend to have been çarried off in this way, and obtain credit for the marvels they tell of the subterranean habitations of the trows. Sometimes, when a person becomes melancholy and low-spirited, the trows are supposed to have stolen the real being, and left a moving phantom to represent him. Some times they are said to steal only the heart (like Lancashire witches.) There are cures in each case. party's friends resort to a cunning man or woman, who hangs about the neck a triangular stone in the shape of a heart, or conjures back the lost individual, by retiring to the hills and employing the necessary spells. A common receipt when a child appears consumptive and puny is, that the conjuror places a bowl of water on the patient's head, and pours melted lead into it through the wards of a key. The metal assumes of course a variety of shapes, from which he selects a portion after due consideration, which is sewn into the shirt of the patient. Sometimes no part of the lead suits the seer's fancy. Then the operation is recommenced, until he obtains a fragment of such a configuration as suits his mystical pur. pose.

The

The Zetlanders are a tall, manly, handsome race of people, with long

fair hair, blue eyes, and good-humoured countenances. They are very civil and temperate in their general habits. Very many of them go into the navy, and remit large sums to their families, under the late benevolent act of parliament for enabling seamen to make such provisions. The whale-fishery always finds employment in the summer months for many of these hardy islanders. The whale vessels from Hull, Leith, or elsewhere, take these hands, who are supernumerary as to the navigation of the vessel; go with her to Greenland, and are again put ashore as she is homeward bound. The wages drawn by Zetlanders in this way a mount to a very large sum, upwards of 20,000l. yearly.

The Fair Isle.

We are now clear of Zetland, and about ten o'clock reached the Fair Isle, a solitary island lying about half way between Orkney and Zetland, and not properly belonging to either archipelago, though nominally attached to the latter. One of their boats came alongside, a strange-looking thing, without an entire plank in it, excepting the upper one on each side, upon the strength of which the whole depends, the rest being patched and joined. This trumpery skiff the men manage with the most astonishing dexterity, and row with re markable speed. They have two banks, that is, two rowers on each bench, and use very short paddles. The wildness of their appearance with long elf-locks, striped worsted caps, and shoes of raw hides; the frailty of their boat and their extreme curiosity about us and our cutter, give them a title to be distin

guished as natives. One of our people told their steersman, by way of jeer, that he must have great confidence in Providence to go to sea in such a vehicle; the man very sensibly replied, that without the same confidence in Providence, he would not go to sea in the best tool in England We take to our boat, and row for about three miles round the coast, in order to come at the inhabited point of the island. This coast abounds with grand views of rocks and bays. One immense portion of rock is (like the Holm of Noss) separated by a chasm from the mainland. As it is covered with herbage on the top, though a literal precipice all round, the natives contrive to ascend the rock by a place which would make a goat dizzy, and then drag the sheep up by ropes; though they sometimes carry a sheep upon their shoulders. The captain of a sloop of war being ashore while they were at this work, turned giddy and sick by looking at them.

This immense precipice is several hundred feet high, and is perforated below by some extraordinary apertures, through which a boat might pass. After passing a bay called the North Haven, tenanted by sea-fowl and seals, we came in view of the small harbour, in front of which is the house of the tacksman, and in view are three small assemblages of miserable huts, where the inhabitants of the isle live. There are about 30 families and 250 inhabitants upon the Fair Isle. It merits its name, as the plain upon which the hamlets are situated bears excellent barley, oats, and potatoes, and the rest of the isle is beautiful pasture, excepting to the eastward, where there is a moss, equally essential to the comfort of the inhabitants, since it supplies them

with peats for fuel. The Fair Isle is about three miles long and a mile and a half broad. Mr Strong, the tenant of the island, received us very courteously. He lives here, like Robinson Crusoe, in absolute solitude, as to society, unless by a chance visit from the officers of a man-of-war. There is a signal-post maintained on the island by government, under this gentleman's inspection; when any ship appears that cannot answer his signals, he sends off to Lerwick and Kirkwall to give the alarm. Rogers was off here last year, and nearly cut off one of Mr Strong's express boats, but the active islanders outstripped his people by speed of rowing. The inhabitants pay Mr Strong for the possessions which they occupy under him as subtenants, and cultivate the isle in their own way, i. e. by digging instead of ploughing (though the ground is quite open and free from rocks, and they have several scores of ponies,) and by raising alternate crops of barley, oats, and potatoes; the first and last are ad mirably good. They rather over-manure their crops; the possessions lie runrig, that is, by alternate ridges, and the outfield or pasture ground is possessed as common to all their cows and ponies. The islanders fish for Mr Strong at certain fixed rates, and the fish is his property, which he sends to Kirkwall, Lerwick, or elsewhere, in a little schooner, the same which we left in Quendale Bay, and about the arrival of which we found them anxious. An equal space of rich land on the Fair Isle, situated in an inland county of Scotland, would rent for 30001 a year at the very least. To be sure it would not be burdened with the population of 250 souls, whose bodies (fertile as it is) it cannot main

tain in bread, they being supplied chiefly from the mainland. Fish they have plenty, and are even nice in their choice. Skate they will not touch; dog-fish they say is only food for Orkney-men, and when they catch them, they make a point of tormenting the poor fish, for eating off their baits from the hook, stealing the haddocks from their lines, and other enormities. These people being about half-way between Shetland and Orkney, have unfrequent connection with either archipelago, and live and marry entirely among themselves.

One lad told me, only five persons had left the island since his remembrance, and of those, three were pressed for the navy. They seldom go to Greenland; but this year five or six of these young men were on board the whalers. They seemed extremely solicitous about their return, and repeatedly questioned us about the names of the whalers which were at Lerwick, a point on which we could give little information. The manners of these islanders seem primitive and simple, and they are sober, good-humoured, and friendly. Their comforts are, of course, much dependent on their master's pleasure; for so they call the principal tacksman. In the present instance they consider themselves fortunate, giving the gentleman who now resides among them the highest character for kindness and liberality, and praying to God he might long be their ruler. After mounting the signal post hill, or Malcolm's head, which is faced by a most tremendous cliff, we separated m our different routes. Mr E- went to rectify the only enormity on the island, which existed in the person of a drunken schoolmaster; others went to shoot sea-fowl. Our geologists walked two