PENTLAND or PICTLAND FAITH, is a narrow strait of six miles between the mainland of Scotland and the Orkney isles. This strait is the great thoroughfare of shipping between the eastern and western seas, the terror of the boldest mariners, and the grave of thousands; where the winter's storms afford many natives on the opposite shores a better livelihood than they could obtain by fishing or husbandry. They search from place to place, and from one cavern to another, in the hopes of finding timber, casks, and other floating articles of the wrecked vessels, of whom six or eight are thus sacrificed sometimes in one night. The navigation of this pass is rendered more dangerous by the island of Stroma, and two rocks called the Skerries, lying near the middle of it. See PICLAND.