certain islands on the north of Scotland, from which they are separated by a frith 20 miles in length and 10 in breadth. They are 40 in number; but many are uninhabited, the greater part being small, and producing only pasturage for cattle. The principal islands are denominated by the names of Mainland, South Ronaldshay, Swinna, Flotta, Copinshay, Strupenshay, Stornay, Sanday, &c. the terminations in a, or ha, being generally given in the Teutonic to such places as are surrounded by water. The currents and tides flowing between the islands are extremely rapid and dangerous. Near an island call-

Vol. VIII. whole account of their generation and production, exhibited by the northern naturalists, is absurd and unphilosophical. The Orkney eagles are so strong, that, according to the reports of the country, they have been known to carry away young children in their talons. Certain it is, they make such havoc among the lambs, that he who kills an eagle is entitled by law to a hen from every house in the parish where it was killed. The king's falconer visits these islands every year, in order to fetch away the young hawks and falcons from their nests among the precipices: he enjoys a yearly salary of twenty pounds, and may claim a hen or a dog, from every house in the country, except those that are expressly exempted from this imposition.

The Orkneys, as well as the hills of Shetland, were originally peopled from Norway, in the ninth, tenth, or eleventh century; and the commonalty still retain the language of that kingdom, distinguished by the name of Norns: they likewise preserve some customs of these Norwegian ancestors. The islands of Orkney have been at different times subdued by the Scots, and recovered by the Norwegians: at length they were held by Magnus, king of Norway, to Alexander of Scotland, for the sum of 4000 merks Sterling, and a yearly acknowledgement of 100 merks. Since that period, the Orkneys have continued annexed to the crown of Scotland. The gentry of the Orkneys are civilized, polite, and hospitable; and live like those of Scotland, from whom they are chiefly descended. They live comfortably, are remarkably courteous to strangers, and drink a great quantity of wine, with which their cellars are generally well stored. Indeed the inhabitants of the Orkneys may be now justly deemed a Scotch colony. They speak the language, profess the religion, follow the fashions, and are subject to the laws, of that people. They are frugal, sagacious, circumspect, religious, and hospitable. Their mariners are remarkably bold, active, dexterous, and hardy. Many surprising instances of longevity occur here, as well as in Shetland, of persons living to the age of 140. The Orkney women are generally handsome and well-shaped, and bring forth children at a very advanced age. In the Orkneys, some particular lands are held by a tenure called Udal Right, from Ulcius, or Olavus, king of Norway, who farmed the lands, on condition of receiving one-third of the produce; and this right devolved in succession, without any charter granted by the sovereign. The inhabitants of Orkney, instead of measuring their corn, weigh it in pifmores or pounders. Their least denomination is a mark, consisting of 18 ounces, and 24 marks make a lispound, which is a Danish quantity. The poorer sort of people in the Orkneys appear very meanly habited, with a piece of seal-skin instead of shoes; and living chiefly on salt-fish, are subject to the scurvy. They are much addicted to superstitious rites; in particular, interpreting dreams and omens, and believing in the force of idle charms. The islands of Orkney, we have already observed, produce very bold, able, and hardy mariners. The common people, in general, are inured to fatigue, and remarkably adventurous, both in fishing during rough weather, and in climbing the rocks for the flesh, eggs, and down of sea-fowl. Formerly, while they were exposed to the invasions of the Norwegians, or western islanders, every village was obliged to equip a large boat well manned; and all the fencible men appeared in arms, when the alarm was given by the beacons lighted on the tops of the rocks and highest mountains. These beacons, known by the name of ward-hills, are still to be seen in every island. Their corn land they inclose with mud or stone walls, to preserve it from the ravages of their sheep, swine, and cattle, which wander about at random, without being attended by herdsmen: their ordinary manure, especially near the sea-coast, is sea-weed, which they carefully gather and divide into equal portions. Their sheep are marked on the ears and nose; but to wild, that when they have occasion to shear them in the month of May, they are obliged to hunt every individual, with dogs trained for that purpose. Their manner of catching sea-fowl is curious and particular. Under the rock where these fowls build, they row their boat, provided with a large net, to the upper corners of which are fastened two ropes, lowered down from the top of the mountain by men placed in that station. These hoisting up the net, until it be spread opposite to the cliffs in which the fowls are sitting, the boatmen below make a noise with a rattle, by which the fowls, being frightened, fly forwards into the bosom of the net, in which they are immediately enclosed and lowered down into the boat: others practise the method used in Iceland and Norway, and are lowered down by a single rope from the summit of the mountain; this is the constant way of robbing the hawk's nest. In these islands some strange effects are produced by thunder and lightening. In the year 1680, the lightening entered a cow-house, in which 12 cows stood in a row, killed every second beast as she stood, and left the rest untouched. The distempers that prevail mostly in the Orkneys are agues, consumptions, scurvy, and itch. The agues, which abound in the spring, the natives cure with a diet-drink of bitters and antiscorbutics infused in ale: for phthisical complaints they use the plant arby, and the caryophyllus marinus boiled with sweet milk.

The isles of Orkney and Shetland compose one stewartry, and send one member to the British parliament. The right of superiority to the Orkneys was dismembered from the crown by the union parliament, and granted for a certain yearly consideration to the earl of Moreton, by queen Anne, who appointed him hereditary steward and judiciary. This nobleman possesses the power of creating certain judges, called bailiffs. There is one of these established in every island and parish, with power to superintend the manners of the inhabitants, to hold courts and determine civil causes, according to the laws of Scotland, to the value of ten pounds Scotch money, amounting to 16s. 8d.; but all contests of higher import are referred to the decision of the steward or his deputy, who resides at Kirkwall, which is the seat of justice. Subordinate to the bailiffs are six or seven of the most reputable and intelligent inhabitants, who oversee the conduct of their fellows, acting as constables, and make report of all enormities to the bailiff; who causes the delinquent to be apprehended and punished, if the crime be within the extent of his judicial power; otherwise he transmits him to Kirkwall, where he is tried by by the steward. The Protestant religion prevails in the isles of Orkney, according to the rites and discipline of the kirk, these, and the isles of Shetland, constituting one presbytery, which assembles at Kirkwall. The country is divided into 18 parishes, containing 31 churches, and above 100 chapels.

The trade of the Orkneys is not at present very considerable, though it might be extended to great advantage. They supply with fresh provisions, for ready money, the ships and vessels that touch upon the coast in the course of northern voyages, or in their passage from the East Indies, when they go north about Ireland and Scotland, in time of war, to avoid the privateers of the enemy. They are also visited by those engaged in the herring-fishery, though there is not such a resort on this account to these islands as to the isles of Shetland. Nevertheless, a good number of boats from the western parts of Scotland, as well as from Londonderry, Belfast, and other parts of Ireland, fish for herring as far north as the Leuze, and supply the Orkneys with tobacco, wine, brandy, and other spirituous liquors, clothes, and divers manufactures. These they exchange for fish, and oil extracted from porpoises, seals, and other sea-animals. The people of Orkney export annually great numbers of black cattle, swine, and sheep; together with large quantities of corn, butter, tallow, salt, and fluffs made in the country, over and above the skins of seals, otters, lambs, and rabbits, down, feathers, writing-quills, hams, and wool; yet all these articles would, in point of profit, fall infinitely short of their herring-fishery, were it prosecuted with industry, economy, and vigour. As there are no merchants in the Orkneys at present who export fish on their own account, what herrings are taken, they sell to the Dutch or Scotch dealers in and about Inverness. They generally fish for herring on the west side of the Orkneys; and are therefore more remote from markets, than those who are employed in the same manner on the coast of Shetland.

We may reckon among the curiosities of the Orkneys, the Phaëolus, commonly known by the name of Molucca beans, which are thrown upon the shore after storms of westerly winds, and are supposed to be driven thus far north from the West Indies, where they grow. Many strange fishes and curious shells are also frequently cast up by the ocean; of these last a vast variety for adorning the cabinets of modern naturalists. Sometimes exotic fowls are driven upon the Orkneys by tempestuous weather; fish, as large as whitings, have been thrown ashore to a considerable distance within the land. At Cantick-head, in the island Waes, and some other places, huge stones are often heaved up by the violence of the sea and wind, and cast over high rocks upon the land. A single Laplander has been seen more than once on this coast, in his slender canoe, covered with skins, being driven hither by adverse winds and storms. The Orkneys are not altogether destitute of ancient monuments and curiosities of art. In Hoy we find an entire stone, 36 feet long, 18 in breadth, and 9 in thickness, lying between two hills, and known by the name of dwarfish stone. It is hollowed within by the tools of a mason, the marks of which are still apparent. The entrance is a square hole about two feet high, with a stone, by way of door, standing before it. Within we find a bed with a pillow cut of the stone; at the other end is a couch of the same kind; and in the middle a hearth, above which there is a hole or vent for the exit of the smoke. This curiosity is found in the midst of a desolate heath, and is supposed to have been the residence of a hermit: in the very neighbourhood of this stone there is a very high and steep mountain, called the quartz hill of Hoy, near the summit of which, in the months of May, June, and July, something at noon-day is seen to shine and sparkle with remarkable lustre, supposed by the common people to be an enchanted carbuncle: many persons have clambered up the hill in quest of it, but found nothing. Perhaps this splendour is produced by the reflection of the sun on a small stream of water sliding over the face of a smooth rock. At Stennis, in the main land, there is a causeway of stones over a loch or lake, at the south end of which we observe a circle of stones rising about 20 feet above ground, each being six feet in breadth, and from one to two feet in thickness: between this circle and the causeway two stones of the same dimensions stand by themselves, and one of them is perforated in the middle. At the distance of half a mile from the other end of the causeway appears a larger circle of the same kind of stones, the diameter of which may amount to 110 paces; some of these stones are fallen; and to the east and west of the larger circle are two artificial green mounts. Both rounds are surrounded with a ditch; and one cannot view them without admiration, considering the art that must have been used to bring such unwieldy masses together in this order. They were probably temples and places of sacrifice used in times of pagan superstition; and seem to bear a great affinity with the celebrated monument, called Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain in England. In one of the mounts, at the north end of the causeway, the natives found nine fibulae, or clasps of silver, formed into a circle, and resembling a horse-shoe. In many different places of the Orkneys we find rude obelisks or single stones of a great height, set up either as memorials of battles, treaties, or the decease of remarkable personages. In Rousey, between two high mountains, there is a place which the natives distinguish by the appellation of the camp of Jupiter Fring: but the meaning of this name, handed down by tradition, is not known. At the west end of the main land, near Skeal, we find a surprising causeway, above a quarter of a mile in length, on the summit of high hills, composed of reddish stones of different magnitude, impressed with various figures both on the upper and under surface. Some gentlemen in the neighbourhood have carried off the most beautiful of these stones, to be set in their chimneys by way of ornament, like the painted tiles of Holland. This country produces many sepulchres of different nations. In the plains or links of Skeal, the sand being blown away from the surface of the ground, several square catacombs appear built of stones well cemented together, containing some parcels of black earth, and each secured by a large stone at the mouth. Sepulchres of the same kind are found at Ronfum in Stronla; which is likewise remarkable for a different kind of monument, consisting of one entire stone cylinder hollowed, with a bottom like that of a barrel, and a round stone to fill up the entrance; above, the stone was sharpened into an edge; within were found some burned bones and red clay; and over it was placed a large flat stone for the preservation of the whole. These, in all probability were Roman catacombs. In Westra divers Danish graves have been discovered; in one of these appeared the skeleton of a man, with a sword on one side, and a Danish ax on the other. Some have been found buried with dogs, combs, knives, and other utensils. In many places of the country we find round hillocks or barrows, here known by the name of brogh, signifying, in the Teutonic language, burying-place, supposed to have been the cemeteries of the ancient Saxons. In different parts of these islands we see the remains of great buildings, believed to have been fortresses erected by the Danes or Norwegians when they possessed the country. One of these in the isle of Wyre, called the castle of Coppirow, signifying a town of security, is surrounded by a fosse, and the first floor still remains above ground, a perfect square of stone wall, very thick, strongly built, and cemented with lime, the area within not exceeding ten feet in length. Of this Coppirow the common people relate many idle fables. In the chapel of Clet, in the isle of Sanda, there is a grave 19 feet long, in which was found part of a man's back bone, larger than that of a horse. Human bones, of nearly the same size, have been dug up in Westra; and indeed this country is remarkable for producing men of a gigantic stature. Within the ancient fabric of Lady Kirk in South Ronaldshaw, there is a stone four feet long, and two feet broad, on which the print of two feet are engraven, supposed to be the place where, in times of Popery, penitents stood to do public penance.