202 SHETLAND. 



' bleth you, we've been uthed to all that thort of thing in 

 the Crimea. We'll get on nithely, no thoubt." 



They went accordingly and pitched their tent in the 

 neighbourhood of some fishing ground, and get on pretty 

 well for a couple of nights. During the third night, 

 however, a gust came suddenly sweeping down the gully 

 where they were encamped and asleep, and carried ofi 

 their tent bodily, poles and all, leaving them completely 

 al fresco on the ground. The tent was never more seen. 



The harvest in average years is generally so late, and 

 the weather so uncertain, that crops which promise all 

 that could be wished to-day, are to-morrow blackened 

 and blasted by an unexpected change to rain, sleet, or 

 enow. 



To the Shetlander the pony by the way it is always 

 called a horse, unless you wish to lay yourself open to 

 the charge of speaking disparagingly is invaluable, and 

 yet, from the small amount of care bestowed on it, one 

 would infer that it is not much valued. Generally, 

 grooming is unknown, and corn an untasted luxury. He 

 must pick up his food as best he may, at least in ordinary 

 seasons. During snow-storms, when it is impossible for 

 him to do so, he is supplied with some scanty fodder. 



And yet what a wonderful creature he is for endurance i 

 His height ranges from thirty to between forty and fi% 

 inches. A pony, to whose diminutive size and apparently 

 slender build you would think it a risk to entrust yourself, 

 will carry you pluckily, and sometimes rapidly, over forty 

 miles a-day of the worst roads without a stumble, and 



