8 VOYAGE TO SPITZBEHGEN. 



In the parish of North Mevan, a peninsula be- 

 longing to this Island, stands the cloud-capt 

 mountain of Rona, the highest in Shetland. It 

 is eight miles long, four broad, and three thou- 

 sand nine hundred and forty-four geometrical feet 

 above the level of the sea ; serving for a land-mark 

 to fishers and vessels coming from the Northern 

 Ocean. From the top of this lofty eminence the 

 eye commands an extensive and pleasing prospect, 

 stretching fifty miles at least in every direction. 

 The great number of small islands and peninsulas 

 scattered beneath, and often a distant view of ves- 

 sels, in summer, affords a most agreeable diversified 

 scene. 



On the summit of this mountain stands a house, 

 called the watch-house, in which six or seven 

 men can sit. It is constructed of four large 

 stones, covered by two more for a roof, on the 

 top of which is erected a pyramidal tower of small 

 stones. 



In the same parish stands a rock rising per- 

 pendicular on all sides to a vast height, which, at a 

 few miles'' distance, looks like a ship under full sail. 

 Near to this are two very high inaccessible pil- 

 lars, on which the large species of cormorants 

 breed. What is extraordinary, the rocks possessed 

 by these birds one year is deserted the next, and re- 



