ABERDEEN TO THE SHETLANDS. 1$ 



and were softer and slower in consequence. Five or 

 six hundred of these Icelanders have been known to 

 arrive annually at Granton, Aberdeen, and Grange- 

 mouth. They are, generally speaking, two hands 

 higher than the Shetland ponies, and sometimes 

 sadly stubborn on landing if they are not twitched 

 under the lip. 



The best ponies come from Unst ; but both there 

 and everywhere the breeders are far too indifferent to 

 the points of a sire, as long as they are foal- 

 getters. " About a quarter of Unst has a skeleton 

 of red sand-stone and serpentine, with a thin soil 

 studded with large red stones, and the knobs of 

 rocks sticking up. Yet among these rocky incum- 

 brances one sees scores of ponies picking the green 

 grass, which the light of heaven and the breath of 

 the Gulf stream force up from so barren -looking a 

 bed. Still, Unst may be regarded as the heart of 

 Shetland; and a sunny, genial-looking spot it is, 

 when other parts of the country are dismal enough, 

 in the late northern spring*." The heather and the 

 bog-grasses elsewhere do not make much milk, and 

 the mare ponies sink so much in condition that 

 they are invariably barren every other year. If very 

 well kept they reach 44 inches, but the average is 

 from 38 to 42. Their owners frequently lose sight 

 of them for a couple of summers, and recognize them 

 when wanted, not by any formal " Exmoor brand' r 

 on the saddle-place or the hoof, but by a peculiar 



* Mark Lane Express, Oct. 24, 1864. 



