28 VOYAGE OUTWARD. 



horizontality ; in many places consisting of large flags lying 

 loosely over each other. The soil is poor, and yields little 

 corn ; the inhabitants subsisting chiefly on fish. Latterly 

 the straw plait manufacture being introduced, employs the 

 younger girls : this is chiefly at Stromness, which is the usual 

 rendezvous of ships proceeding to the westward, or to the 

 fisheries. Kirkwall, the chief town, is respectable, and is 

 remarkable for its fine cathedral. Though scarcely a shrub 

 is to be seen on Pomona; it is said to have been once well 

 Avooded, and trunks of large trees are often dug up. 



On the 17th of April,* after being about six weeks at sea. 



* JOURNAL. 



Thursday, March 13 : thermometer 42°, 43°, 42°: wind W.S.W., 

 strong breeze : under shelter of Duncansbay Head : a detached 

 high rock of red-brown sandstone, about 100 yards from the sJiore, 

 is called Johnny Groat's Castle : this day clear and dry : squalls 

 eddying along the sea, 



March 14: ther. 46°, 47°, 40°: wind N.W., almost a calm: 

 sky clear and deUghtfully serene : Stromness in siglit. 



March 15: ther. 41°, 44°, 42°: wind S., hght breeze: cirrus 

 changing into cu-rocumulus, cirrostratus : weather fine : anchored at 

 the back of the Holms, a flat island, at Stromness. 



March 16 : ther. 46°, 45°, 40° : wind S.S.W., Ught breeze: cirros- 

 tratus in long dark beds in the westward, tinged red with the rays 

 of the setting sun. 



March 17: ther. 42°, 45°, 40°: wind W., fresh breeze: stratus 



