SCILLY ISLANDS 



SCIO 



I ones, besides innumerable ruck* anil ledge*, 

 of which about a hundred are named. They are 

 composed entirely of a coninc type of granite, a 

 eootiniiHlion <it ilmt running through Devon and 

 iwall. Tin is foiinil, Inn in iich minute 

 quantities lluit to justify the identification of 

 tbew i-laml- with the Cutiiierule* (q.v.) or 'Tin 

 Islands',,! the ancients the west end of Cornwall 

 would almost require to be included as the all- 

 iiii|Hiit:int member of tin- group. The idea of a 

 land of l.yoneHse between the islands anil the 

 mainland submerged within historic times is now 

 abandoned. The present name Soilly ' lielongs 

 -tiictlv to a small, very inaccessible, doable. rocky 

 inland in the north-went of the group, ami is most 

 probably derived from furnish Silyo, or Sillit, 'a 

 conger eel. ' 



Athclstan oonqnered the islands in 938, and 

 established monks upon Tresco, the ruins of whose 

 abbey mill remain. Olaf Trygvason (995-1000), 

 who forced Christianity upon Norway and intro- 

 duced it into Iceland, in said to have been run. 

 verted I iy a hermit upon one of the islands. They 

 were handi-d over to the wealthy abbey of Tavis- 

 tock by Henry I., but reverted to the crown upon 

 the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. In 

 1568 Queen Elizabeth leased them to Sir Francis 

 Godolphin, who built the Star Castle on St Mary's 

 over the doorway stands ' E. R. 1593.' They 

 remained in his family for more than 250 years 

 hence the hamlet of Dolphin ' town II|MHI Tresco. 

 They sheltered Prince Charles in 1645 before he 

 fled to Jersey (Clarendon here began his History), 

 and Cromwell's Tower on Tresco was set up bv the 

 parliamentary forces. In 1834 they were leased 

 to Mr Augustus John Smith, a milieu! reformer 

 although -omen hat of an autocrat, and the best 

 friend the islanders have ever had. He made 

 Tresco his home for thirty eight years, and his 

 tropical gardens there are unique in northern 

 Europe. He built churches and schools, sup- 

 pressed smuggling, encouraged agriculture, and 

 forbade overcrowded holdings. He was succeeded 

 aa 'lord proprietor' in 1872 by his nephew, T. A. 

 Dorrien Smith. 



The climate is mild, but necessarily damp, and 

 the weather is changeable and frequently stormy; 

 but the ti-ni|ienuure is extremely equable, averag- 

 ing '' K. in slimmer and 45 K. in winter. The 

 leading natural features of the scenery are the 

 fantastically weathered rocks and rock-basins and 

 the bold coast-lines. There are remains of crom- 

 lechs and stone circles ; and a perfect kistvaen 

 (containing human liones showing traces of lire 

 action) was ^opened upon Samson in 1862. Tresco 

 Abbey and ita gardens are considered the leading 

 object* of interest for the tourist No pun of the 

 inln.mli i more than 160 feet aliove sea-level. The 

 highml point* are the Telegraph' on St Mary's, 

 and 8t Martin N Head, which has had a day-mark 

 1683. There has been a lighthouse on St 

 since HMO, on Bishop Hock since 1858, and 

 wi Itonml Island sine.. 1XX7 ; there are also ligh Is 

 on the Wolf, the Seven Stom- dloating), and the 

 Long-hil- off Land's End. Hugh Town on St 

 .Mary -. tin- only town on the islands, with plain, 

 *ultaiitial ami unintcr.-sting houses (mostly two- 

 toned), has a church (resident chaplain, with 

 curate* on Trenco, Si Martin's, ami Si Agnes), 

 two chapels, two comfortable hotels, banks, shops, 

 schools, telegraph (since 1870), mid Jubilee Hall. 

 t has also a pier (erected by Mr A. .1. Smith), a 

 coastguard station, and a lifeUiat. There is good 

 anchorage in the roadstead. Many of the islands, 

 esp-yially Annet, abound with sea-fowl. 



Wr-vks med to 1* very numerous and were a 

 fruitful source of wealth. die of the most famous 

 WM that of three ships of Sir Cloudcsley Shovel's 



.!! in 1707, when 2000 men, including the admiral, 

 'owned. The Scillonians also lived by pilot 

 .!_.. but steam ami more lighthouses now help 

 vessels to avoid the islands. Smuggling was 

 formerly largely indulged in. In the call- 

 of tin- lilih century, before the days of iron s'hips, 

 there were three shipbuilding-yards on St Man's. 

 Kelp-making, introduced in 10K4, has Iteen "i'vcn 

 up. Nowadays most of the young men emi 

 and are found doing well in all part- of the oili. 

 Farming is practised, and early potatoes and 

 broccoli are ex|Hirted ; but the principal industry 

 now is the cultivation of narcissus and other lilies 

 100 tons of flowers being shipped in a single 

 spring. There is a steamer to Penzance three 

 times a week all the year round. In May ami June, 

 during the mackerel-fishing, there is one steamer 

 (often two) daily with cargoes of sometimes over 

 100,000 fish. The lishing-lioats, however, belong 

 to IVn/ance and the east coast. Politically the 

 islands belong to the St Ivcs division of Cornwall. 



See Borlue's Oturrrationt (1756), White's A Week in 

 the Met of Scilly (18T>0), Tonkin's Gvvl (Penzanoe, 

 1887), nd Besant'a Armortl of Lyonette (1890). 



Scimitar, an oriental sabre. See SWORD. 

 Srinde. See SIM), SINDHIA. 

 Scink. See SKINK. 



Srinf illation, or twinkling of the stars, is & 

 familiar phenomenon to all who have directed 

 their attention to the firmament above us. Under 

 ordinary atmospheric conditions this flickering is 

 i issesseil onlv U tin' so-callnl ti\nl -t.-n- i -.,.,. 

 STARS). A planet shines steadily and by this 

 mark can readily lie picked ont. When near the 

 horizon, however, planets have l)een observed to 

 scintillate slightly ; while stars at low altitudes 

 invariably twinkle more vigorously than stars 

 overhead. This at once jKiints to the atmosphere 

 as an imi>ortaiit factor, since the phenomenon is 

 more pronounced when the light has to travel sea 

 greater depth of air. Again, when viewed through 

 sufficiently large telescopes stars cease twinkling 

 altogether. The action of the telescope is to con- 

 centrate niton the eye a much larger pencil of rays 

 than could naturally enter it. Instead of one 

 slender ray the eye receives the integral effect of & 

 great number of rays, whose individual features 

 are li^t in the general average. In the case of a 

 planet, again, the rays which fall upon the retina 

 converge from all parts of a disc of sensible size ; 

 and in the integral effect of this pencil the indi- 

 vidual features of the component rays are lost. Hut 

 a star is so far distant as to be virtually a point of 

 light. In this case we have an excessively slender 

 ray infinitely narrow compared even to the small 

 pencil of light that comes to us from a planet. 

 The vicissitudes of refraction which a star-ray 

 experiences in passing through the infinitely irreg- 

 ular variations of density, temperature, and humid- 

 ity in our atmosphere characterise its integral 

 effect on our retina, and the result is twinkling. 

 The exquisite chromatic effects that accompany 

 the twinkling of a bright star like Sirius are fully 

 MOOOnted for in terms of this general explanation. 



It is possible iml 1 by separating the images of a 



star produced in the two eyes i.. observe two 

 diM'erent scintillations at one and the same time. 

 Scintillation may thus lie said to de|ienil on three 

 factors : ( 1 ) The vast distance even of the nearest 

 stars reducing the largest of them to mere points 

 of light ; (2) the ever-changing variableness in con- 

 iliiion of the atmosphere through which the light 

 must come to.ns; (3) the smallness of aperture of 

 our eye, which receives an almost ideal single ray 

 of light. 



Kclo. See CHIOS. 



