AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



The utility of provincial histories of all kinds is now gene- 

 rally acknowledged to be great, as these are certainly the ma- 

 terials from which a general structure, either of civil, military, 

 or natural history, is to be raised. In no branch of history 

 is this more apparent than in that of Nature. She must be 

 sought and described on the spot, and her various produc- 

 tions investigated in their proper climates, soils, and beds. 

 Hearsay descriptions of natural subjects are seldom to be de- 

 pended on, unless taken from the most attentive observers, 

 and even these, to be convincing, must be made on the spot, 

 as change of climate or soil sometimes makes such alterations 

 in the appearance of natural objects, as may deceive even 

 adepts in the science. 



The following sketch of the Natural History of the Orkney 

 Islands was at first designed as an information of what might 

 be remarkable here to a gentleman*, whose writings on the 

 same subject do him honour, and are well known to the pub- 

 lic. But by degrees swelling to some bulk, by his advice it 

 was thrown into a systematic arrangement, and now appears 

 as a separate work. 



* Thomas PENNA^T, Esq. 

 b- 



