A TRIP TO 'THE SHETLANDS.—III.
ITAVING seen Lerwick and explored its surroundings, I prepared for a visit to the northern islands, without which a tour to the Shetlands is no more complete than the Frenchman's view of the United Kingdom from Leicester Square. This tour is not easy of accomplishment, there being no inns anywhere except at Lerwick. But I was fortunate in the promised hospitality of one of the few proprietors residing at Balta Sound, on the east coast of Unst. I should have had to wait two days for the small steamer which now plies between Lerwick and the northern islands. I heard gladly, therefore, of a small trading sloop which ailed on the day I had destined for my voyage, and which would take me to the very top of Balta Sound. The wind was south-west, and very fresh, and everything promised a rapid sail. The sue soon came out, and threw all the brightness and richness of colour over sea and coast which is requisite to give the full .flarour to a Shetland scene. We soon hoisted all our sails, and went bounding over the large waves at a great rate, occasionally receiving a rude greeting from one that washed over the deck. As the wind in the sails put one side of the vessel almost into the water, while the other was raised high aloft, it was necessary to hold on pretty constantly. On our left we had for a long time the coast of Mainland, grassy and rather low, but occasionally exhibiting the precipitous rocks, up- heaved strata, and hollowed-out caves that are to be met in all
the islands. After Bressay we had the open sea on the right, and Whalsay looking very fine in front, till we passed that also. It is one of the tamer islands, and is chiefly a sheep-walk. The sea in front was very fine, and all alive with breakers on isolated stacks or sunken rocks. We crossed the wide passage between Yell and Fetlar, where the waves were very high. At Cossaburgh, in the south of Yell, we tacked into the bay, and discharged some cargo ; and also at Mid-Yell, where the bay runs so far in that the troublesome tacking against a stiff wind took at least an hour. At its head the wind was so high that the boats did not like to come out to receive the supplies we had brought ; but ultimately they came, and many large sacks of corn were hurled into boats that seemed too slight to carry their heavy burden safely ashore. We had been three hours in going to and returning from this place, and it was about half-past eight when we were again at sea, and past ten when, after encountering heavier winds between Yell and Unst, we reached Uya Sound, at the southern end of the latter. Here the waves were so high that the boats would not come out at all, though we had two young women on board bound for that very place. It was too late and too windy to go further, and I had to reconcile myself to the necessity of passing a night in the tiny cabin of this little sloop. The sailors lighted a minute stove, brought me a huge black kettle filled with the tea of which they were going to partake, with toast and butter, and made up a bed, in which I slept soundly through all the howling of the wind. My breakfast in the morning was the same, with the exception of the milk, which was exhausted ; and I was in no way sorry for the adventure which had given me so pleasant an insight into the habits and the kindliness towards strangers of the Shetland seamen. The Shetlanders are very fond of tea, and drink it much more than spirits, even when out fishing inthehaaf, —notwithstanding the proneness which' have mentioned to smuggle in cheap Dutch spirits when the opportunity is brought to their doors. The following morning we were soon out at sea again, dancing gaily over great rolling waves, the tops of which stood up on high behind us so as to hide the land on the horizon. It was wildest off Muness Point, where we saw the fine ruins of Maness Castle. Presently we turned into the narrow channel between Unst and the small, green, and sandy island of Balta, to enter the long voe called Balta Sound, which is completely sheltered by the island, and forms one of the best harbours in Shetland. At the upper end are many houses, and I was soon welcomed at the comfortable one for which I was bound. Here I passed many happy days, marred only by the continuance of the stiff wind and the coming-on of drenching rain, which prevented me from inspecting this island as fully as I had intended.
Unst is the most distant and perhaps the bleakest of the islands. It has two ranges of hills, running chiefly north and south, and enclosing a valley, with a stream which forms two lakes, full of fish, and flows out at the northern end. I ascended the highest hill, near the centre of the island, and obtained from it a complete survey of the whole. A strong wind was blowing, against which it was difficult to stand on the summit ; and the very bold rocks on the western coast were lashed by a furious sea, while a wild channel full of surf separated the north coast of Yell, similarly exposed to the ocean. Intervening hills shut out from view the lighthouse at Barra, Sound, the northern end of Unst ; its situa- tion is said to be very fine, but it is exposed to the brunt of the Northern Ocean and the violent north wind. It has, however, the honour of being the most northerly point of the United Kingdom.
In Mist I first saw the true Shetland pony. The ponies are not now so common in all the islands that herds are everywhere to be found, from which the traveller can take one at pleasure for his temporary use, as was formerly the case, according to "The Pirate." In Mainland they are seldom seen, and they are chiefly bred and kept in the northern islands, Yell and Unst. The horses fetch a good price, and are generally sold out of the islands, partly for gentlemen's use, but principally for mines, for which their extreme hardiness, strength, and small requirements admir- ably fit them. They cannot be spoiled, except by overfeeding. In their native home they never go under a roof, nor are groomed or shod. The ponies I saw in Unst were therefore chiefly mares and foals ; they are used in carrying peat and other burdens, and for riding, but not for drawing. They are very shaggy, some- times as much so as a goat, and not much bigger. But the head is well formed and intelligent. Here also I first saw the proper Shetland cows, which also are small, short-legged, and scraggy, but I am not professional enough to give the points correctly. Likewise the Shetland sheep, which I mentioned above, were first seen here. Unst maintains these ancient breeds, while newer experiments are supplanting them by cross-breeds in the southern islands. Unst is very remarkable for its peculiar and sometimes valuable minerals. A large belt of land is composed of green serpentine, which takes a good polish. It is inferior to that of the Lizard, in having only the green and not the red colour. Chromate of iron is found, quite on the surface, often with the serpentine. It was largely used as a mordant for the mauve dye, till it was superseded by a less expensive substance. This has, for the present, almost put an end to the quarrying. Asbestos is found in large quantities, both here and in Fetlar.
I had by this time gained a clearer insight than I had ever expected into the character of the Shetlanders. I will devote the few remaining lines of my narrative to this subject. That they were not Scotch, but much nearer to English than to Scotch, was one of the first observations made. Their speech is pure English ; I mean English with its level pitch, without the Scotch sing-song, and with the English rather than the Scotch vowels. There are plenty of local words, which are collected in Mr. Edmondston's " Glossary" (see Spectator, June 26, 1869, p. 767), but the frame- work of the speech is good, correct English. Physically they are more Norse-English than Saxon-English. They are of slenderer build, perhaps of lower average height, and more prevailing hand- some features than the latter. A kind of girlish sweetness and beauty I especially noted in many of the young men, whose rough occupation and exposure to the elements would be expected to have taken off from the softness of the skin and the roses of the cheek. The children were remarkable for a refined kind of beauty which is very un-Scotch. The women are generally decidedly pretty when young, but become wrinkled and colourless before old age, through hard lives and ungentle seasons. They retain a very strong feeling of their separate nationality, and cannot bear to be confounded with the Scotch, between whom and themselves there is no love lost. There can be, indeed, little in common between the true Shetlanders and the Scottish peasantry. The Scotch never colonized Shetland ; it was peopled, accord- ing to historical accounts, together with Orkney, by Nor- wegians, and their inroads commenced with the great exodus of Norwegian earls who fled from the tyranny of Harold the Fairhaired in 875, but it remained subject to the Crown of Norway until 1468. It was then with Orkney transferred to Scotland, but the earldom of both had been held by a Scotchman for nearly a century before. From that time to this the number of Scotch proprietors has no doubt increased, but the bulk of the population can have been but slightly affected by the Scotch proprietorship. The Shetlanders are very honest, sober, and simple in their habits ; generally very poor, and wearing their clothes to tatters like the Irish. They live in small hovels, the best of which are of stone, with a good straw thatch, but the worst are scarcely to be described,—built of peat, upon a peat floor, with small holes, half stuffed up to keep out the wind, for windows ; and a peat fire in the middle, whose pungent smoke thus confined makes the place unapproachable by strangers. There is a "land question" in Shetland ; but, the people not having anything of Irish fire and hate, it will never be much heard of out of the islands. The turning of small farms, which languished under a vain attempt to produce profitably potatoes, vegetables, and oats, into parts of large sheep-farms, and the unwillingness of the poor cottiers to accept leases which pledge thetis to anything at all, though it be unquestionably advantageous to the land, are two of the chief features of this question. This brings to our view one of the defects of the Shetland character. "Stare super antiquas vies" is a motto which again reminds us of the Norsemen, but is a mark of intellectual slowness nowadays. Shetland agriculture is far behind what it might be, even considering all the difficulties of climate ; but the ignorant conservatism and suspicion of the improving landlord, on the part of his tenants, keeps it from rising.
The making of roads has been promoted of recent years in every part, and whether in the centre of civilization about Lerwick, or in distant Unst, the ways leading in every direction to the principal villages or fishing stations are excellent.
If my account should send any seekers after the enjoyment of travel to the Shetlands, I hope and think they will have reason to thank me for directing their course thither. They ought to be good sailors, and if possible such as really enjoy the sensation of being in a boat. And they must not be ruffled by delays and inconveniences in communication between the islands or in the post. They must also put up with great uncertainty as to weather. From the experience of this year, June is a finer month than July, and I believe August and September are often good, but it is a pity to lose the lovely long days of midsummer. Then
a sociable disposition is sure to be met by kindness and hospitality more than would be found in most countries where people travel. And if there is occasional discomfort, at least there is no
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