Dr. Mac Culloch on the Chart of Shetland. 19 



Voe one anchor is placed ; the whole is, however, one immense 

 harbour, capable of containing all the fleets of Europe, but the 

 chart has neglected to notice the shoal water at the entrance, 

 which renders it nearly as impracticable as it is useless on this 

 coast. In Wisdale Voe no anchor is marked, although there 

 is an excellent anchorage near Sand, with a clean channel. 

 Of both these latter bays I may further remark, that the outline 

 is very incorrect ; in Wisdale Voe, in particular, a deep bay 

 being gratuitously placed where the shore forms a straight line. 

 It is from errors of this nature that the opinion was formerly 

 given, that Captain Preston's documents could not have been 

 applied to the construction of even this part of the Shetland 

 chart, as such mistakes could not possibly have existed in any 

 real survey, had it even been executed by the most ordinary 

 fisherman. 



No anchorage being marked in Stromness Voe, it is almost 

 superfluous to say that the entrance is too narrow, as well as too 

 shoal, for any vessel ; but a singular omission of a geographical 

 nature is here deserving of notice. This is the total omission 

 of the prolongation of this voe, which reaches for nearly three 

 miles into the interior country, being connected with the more 

 open bay by a narrow channel, over which there is a bridge. As 

 a part of the seaoutline, this should have been inserted, although 

 other inland lakes and objects were neglected, as appertaining 

 rather to the terrestrial geography. The harbour of Scalloway 

 is sufficiently well laid down, but there is a very singular mis- 

 take in representing the two lakes of Tingwall as one, and in 

 connecting them with the sea, as if they were salt lakes, where- 

 as the southernmost is separated from it for more than a mile 

 by a tract of meadow-land, which certainly has not been formed 

 since the chart was constructed. Anchors are laid down in 

 several parts of Cliff Sound, where no seaman would think of 

 anchoring, owing to the depth of water, and the squalls from 

 the high land, and where, in fact, there is no occasion for any 

 vessel to stay. A similar remark may be made on an anchor- 

 age marked between the two Burras, which can only be re- 

 quired by the smallest class of fishing vessels, and is safe for no 



