ABERDEEN TO THE SHETLANDS. 5 



thing but sympathetic when he tells them how he 

 has been " insulted" ; and when the captain appears 

 in his place, and affects, with quite a dramatic start, to 

 know happiness once more, after having been weighed 

 down for hours by the report of his loss, he makes a 

 final appeal. First he adduces precedents: "/ 

 sat on the bowsprit between Edinburgh and Aber- 

 deen" " Did you ?" said the captain ; " but the sea 

 isn't so deep in those parts. }} His great point is that 

 he will lay the mate's conduct before the steamboat 

 company ; and there the captain is quite with him, 

 as " he'll get a gold medal for saving your life. 3 ' But 

 harmony is restored, and the evening closes with 

 toddy. 



It is nearly midnight, and we are at the " sea- 

 girdled peat-moss" at last. There are lights in every 

 lattice when we steam into Lerwick Bay, and the 

 " retaliatory" report of the cannon soon made us wel- 

 come. An August morning broke on a quaint, old, 

 innless town, with one narrow, flagged street at the 

 foot of a hill, up which you climb through alleys. 

 They bear the proud names of "Pitt" and "Re- 

 form," but were more suggestive, during our brief 

 visit, of perennial gutters, and washing-tubs. Dutch 

 clogs, seal- skin purses, and comforters seemed great 

 articles of trade, and there were also photographs of 

 Earl Zetland, holding a grey horse. Job Marson and 

 Voltigeur are names unknown. Commander Smith 

 of the revenue cutter, and fully six-feet-two by six- 

 teen stone, is evidently the great man of the place, and 



