138 THE SHETLANDS IN THE 



other side, with luncheon in our pockets and clothes 

 comparatively dry. A pleasant walk of three or four 

 miles leads from the landing-place to the point of 

 Bressay, opposite the shepherd's house in Noss, where 

 there is a ferry between the two islands ; and half-way 

 across, as we sauntered along, interested by such un- 

 Londonish sights as women harnessed to harrows, or 

 carrying heavy loads of peat from the hills in straw 

 baskets hanging from their shoulders, knitting as they 

 went, we were delighted at seeing for the first time, 

 near a freshwater lake, a party of Richardson's Skuas 

 the birds which more than any others were responsible 

 for bringing us over land and sea eight hundred miles 

 and more from London. We knew that they bred 

 regularly in Mousa, some fifteen miles to the south, and 

 on some of the more northerly islands, but had not 

 expected to find them in Bressay or Noss ; and the first 

 sight of their long, thin, sharp-cut, angular wings, and 

 the two unmistakable long pin feathers springing from 

 the middle of the tail, and the powerful, graceful flight 

 of the birds as they circled round, playfully chasing 

 one another, or lit on the water to rise again the next 

 moment, had the charm of a welcome surprise. 



Noss is separated from the larger island by a narrow 

 cut. The channel is not many yards wide, but in 

 certain states of wind and tide cannot be crossed with- 

 out danger. We had been warned in Lerwick, that with 

 the wind blowing as it had done for some thirty hours, 

 it was not unlikely that we might find the ferry too 

 rough to cross. But this time fortune favoured us, 



