197 



SHETLAND. 



CHAPTER I. 



LERWICK. 



STARTING from Orkney, we may find some things to 

 interest us during our eleven or twelve hours' sail. 

 Having got clear of the Orkneys, it is not very long till 

 we come in sight of Fair Isle, midway between the two 

 groups, one of the most lonely and unapproachable of 

 human habitations, of which I shall speak more particu- 

 larly by-and-by. Meanwhile, if our voyage is made by 

 day, we shall see, as we come abreast of it, that our 

 course is dotted over with ten or a dozen little boats, 

 which seem in a fair way of being either run down by the 

 steamer, or swamped by the wash of her paddles. The 

 boatmen evidently have no such fear, for instead of 

 avoiding the apparent danger, they pull close up, and 

 amid the roar and rush of the steamer, which has not 



