IN THE SHETLANDS en ae 
member of a fraternity admit himself on a level with 
mankind in general, in regard to his particular cult? 
The thing is always to ramp on one’s pedestal, though 
it be no higher than the houses over the way. Per- 
sonally I doubt the validity of a specific distinction so 
attenuated as this; but be that as it may, terns, in 
their northern and southern homes, seem to differ 
somewhat in their natures, even as do the respective 
beaches on which they lay, with their surrounding 
scenery of sea and sky. How different are these one 
from another! MHere, in these desolate and wind- 
swept isles, I, at least, though I have sometimes seen 
the sun, have never caught one glimpse of summer— 
nothing at all nearer to it than a somewhat fresher and 
very much rougher November. But on that other 
great bank, in the more genial climate of southern 
England, not only is it summer, sometimes—and that 
in spring—for hours together, but one may even be, 
for a while, in the tropics. How else could there be 
the mirage ? Yet there it is, or, at any rate, something 
like it; for as one lies at length and gazes through 
the golden haze that seems to beat in waves upon the 
hot, parched shingle, lo! thisis gone, and where it lay, 
all glaring, a blue pellucid lake, that seems to partake 
equally of the nature of sea and sky, lies now, cool and 
delightful. Into it terns, ever descending, seem to 
plunge or softly dip, as though it were the sea itself ; 
and as they do so they either disappear altogether, be- 
coming lost in azure haze, or are seen through it, 
dimly and vaguely, sitting or performing such actions 
