5 2 The Shetlands in the 



its mother, we were able, by the light it gave, to 

 examine, underneath the wooden tray on legs, fastened 

 to the wall, on which the grindstones were fixed, the 

 simple but very effective contrivance* for regulating 

 the coarseness of the meal to be ground. 



We felt as we crept back into the open air much as 

 we might have done if, on crawling down the rocks 

 outside to look for the nests of the black Guillemots 

 which swarmed on the lower ledges, we had turned a 

 corner and come upon a great Auk sitting on her 



egg. 



Perhaps the sense of far-backness was all the 

 stronger upon us, because, since we had left London, 

 a veil had been dropped between us and our past 

 existence. The weather as we left Aberdeen had 

 been perfection, with just enough air stirring to 

 freshen the colours of the sea, and carry the smoke 

 of the funnel clear of the deck. The sun set " smil- 

 ingly forsworn," at twenty-five minutes to nine, and 

 as the long twilight, which brought home to us that 

 we were getting northward, set in, sheerwaters 

 which in their habits are the owls of the sea, living 

 for the most part in their holes on shore by day, and 

 coming out at dusk shot past us, one or two at a 

 time, with quick gliding flight, on their way to their 

 feeding-grounds, the long, sharp wings closing at each 

 stroke backwards, until the birds seemed to have 

 forked tails like Swallows. 



Perhaps if our experience of local weather signs 



* A full description of the mechanism of a quern, with 

 illustrations, with much other interesting information with 

 regard to the survival in Shetland of implements, &c., of 

 patterns of very early date, will be found in the Rhind Lectures, 

 delivered in 1876 and 1878, by Dr. A. Mitchell, Professor of 

 Ancient History to the Royal Scottish Academy, quoted above, 

 published in 1880, under the title " The Past in the Present." 



