14 Dr. Mac Culloch on the Chart of Shetland. 



the chart a stocked anchor is laid down in each. Levenwick, 

 Sandiwick, and jJEth's Voe, are almost equally bad ; but any 

 incorrectness in these is of less moment, as no vessel would 

 incline to stop in them when equally able to reach Brassa 

 Sound. On the subject of that sound, the minute survey of 

 Captain Ramage, lately appended to the general chart, leaves 

 nothing to be desired. There is nothing to object to the several 

 anchorages laid down in Catfirth, Wadbester, Laxfirth, and 

 Dale's Voes, nor to those in Oune Voe, since an anchor may be 

 let go in almost any part of these inlets. 



But in Whalsey the chart of the harbour is so incorrect, that 

 the real anchorage could not be discovered by it without the 

 aid of a pilot ; so that in this respect the chart is, to say the 

 least of it, useless. If the anchorage at the Out Skerries, which 

 may often be very convenient, had been properly laid down, there 

 would have been no difficulty whatever in taking it, by attending 

 to the tides. For want of any direction respecting these, from the 

 absence of marked soundings, and from the extremely incorrect 

 position given to these islands and the intermediate channels, 

 no vessel would now dare to enter them ; although, so far from 

 the harbour being fit for small vessels only, as the chart says, 

 ships drawing twelve feet water and upwards may lie in it with 

 the greatest safety, and may quit it with any wind, as there are 

 two entrances. 



The entrance to Vidlon Voe is perfectly simple ; and here 

 the chart has very properly laid down anchors, as it has, with 

 much less propriety, in Burra Voe, at the southern point of 

 Yell, since that harbour is superseded by the much better and 

 neighbouring one of Hamna Voe, although in neither have any 

 soundings been laid down. From this part of Yell to Refirth 

 Voe there is no anchorage, and, although there is fortunately 

 no difficulty in entering this harbour, excepting that arising 

 from its narrowness, it is extremely ill delineated in the chart, 

 nor are any soundings placed in it, so that it cannot be entered 

 without the lead. Basta Voe forms one of the finest harbours 

 in Shetland, or perhaps in the world ; but no indication of its 

 nature is given in the chart, and, as usual, it is deficient in the 



