FISHING STATIONS— SCOTLAND. 311 



Slietlanders are regularly sought after as a necessary 

 portion of the crews ; while at their island home their 

 instinctive occupation is one which exposes them to all 

 the worst perils of the sea, and whicli are braved by 

 them in boats whose good qualities and national origin 

 alike tend to give confidence in their well-doing. The 

 stern aspect of the Shetlands suggests a hardy race of 

 inhabitants, for there is apparently little to be obtained 

 from agriculture for the support of those whose lot it is 

 to dwell there. In a barren and treeless region, and so 

 far north that the summer nights have no darkness, 

 and the winter days but little light — the supposed 

 Ultima Thule of the ancients — where, but for the genial 

 influence of the warm Atlantic currents, the country 

 would be frozen through the long winter months far 

 more completely than is now the case, what would be 

 the condition of the Slietlanders if they were not an 

 energetic race, and ready to take every opportunity of 

 gathering in the only harvest on which they can de- 

 pend, that from their deep and dangerous seas ? Were 

 it not for their fisheries, so actively followed up along 

 their rocky shores and many miles away from land, 

 these islanders muxst long ere this have become a de- 

 generate and poverty-stricken people, if even they could 

 have existed there at all. But happily they are far 

 from being impoverished ; it is true that they are not 

 rich, but they are thriving, and idlers are scarce when 

 there is any work that can be done. There are no 

 more loyal subjects of the Queen than these Shetlanders ; 

 but they are proud of their Norse descent, and a greater 

 insult cannot be offered them than to suppose them to 

 be an offshoot from the Scotch. We may say also that 

 from no one else have we met with more readiness to 

 give every kind of information about their methods of 



