1884.] WOODS AND WILDS OF SHETLAND. 253 



direction, and King Windy-Cap has but to shift his head-gear a few 

 points, and the brine blast shifts with the cap. This is the great 

 difficulty which planters have not been able to overcome. The 

 climate is mild, milder in winter than any part of our Eastern coast 

 from the Nore to Duncan's Head, as mild as the Hebrides, where 

 trees and rookeries flourish very well ; but one may hardly hope for 

 similar ornaments in the case of islands cast away far from shelter- 

 shreds upon the sea, torn into tatters, and too small, in many cases, 

 for human habitation. 



The vegetation of the country is rendered particularly interesting 

 from the circumstances I have just mentioned. A work entitled 

 ' The Flora of Shetland ' was written by a young gentleman, a 

 medical student, and member of a family noted for their literary 

 talent — one of them having been the historian of his native islands, 

 while another, the head of the family, and the laird of Buness in 

 * furthest Unst,' wrote a ' Glossary of Shetland Words.' The laird 

 had tested the tree-producing capacity of tlie country, and showed 

 me the results. But, before speaking of the dwarf specimens which 

 form the substitutes for timber trees, I may say that, in spite of the 

 language of an Act of Parliament of some years ago, conveying an 

 erroneous idea of the severity of the winter, hard frost and deep 

 snow are rare. The climate of Shetland is not so severe as mitiht 

 be inferred from its northern latitudes. Snow seldom lies long, ice 

 thicker than a sixpence is rarely seen, and the temperature is not 

 often low for any considerable length of time, the climate being 

 equalized by the influence of the Gulf Stream, as it is throughout 

 the whole of our western coasts, in England, Scotland and Ireland ; 

 it is, in fact, the most equable climate of all the stations of the 

 Scottish Meteorological Society. The average temperature in 

 August, the hottest month, is 54 deg.; that of February, the coldest 

 month, is 38 deg. The mean annual temperature is 45*5 deg., while 

 that of Edinburgh, which is 272 miles further south, is 47*31 deg.; 

 of England, 49-51 deg. ; and of St. Petersburg, which is in the same 

 latitude as Shetland, but beyond the influence of the same warm 

 ocean currents, 40 deg. 



The story of the climate, however, is written in the vegetation, 

 and I may mention that Jesione montana grows freely in Shetland, 

 as it does commonly on the western coast of Scotland, though not 

 on the eastern, where the climate is less mild. It is said that the 

 Eoraans introduced the Apple into Shetland, and that Unst, the most 

 northern island, was their ultima Thule. Apples are still cultivated, 

 but their skin is tough and green, and, although they are carefully 

 coddled behind the garden walls, the fruit is sour and poor. 



The hills of Shetland are particularly bare, and as only one- 



