60 IMPROVED FISHERY HARBOUR ACCOMMODATION 



REMARKABLE DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS AT WHALSEY 

 SKERRIES. 



" At Whalsey, in Zetland, blocks of stone of 6 tons 

 weight have been quarried or broken out of their beds in situ 

 on the top of the Bound Skerry, which is elevated 70 ft. 

 above high-water spring-tides, and there is every reason 

 to believe that one mass of 13 tons was in like manner 

 dislodged at a spot which is 74 ft. above the sea. Though 

 there are probably few places where the waves are so 

 violent and dangerous as at Whalsey, still it is well for 

 the reader to be able to recognise the characteristic 

 appearances of similar dangerous localities, and to be put on 

 his guard by a description of the place and the phenomena 

 it presents ; for it must be clearly understood that in such 

 places the ordinary methods of construction cannot be 

 applied. The Bound Skerry is the most eastern of the 

 Shetland group. It consists of quartz rock, forming a part 

 of the gneiss strata, which are here permeated to a 

 considerable extent by 'dries,' or seams, and with the 

 exception of a species of lichen that grows on the higher 

 parts, little or no vegetation is to be seen on its surface, 

 although it attains at one point an elevation of 80 ft. above 

 high water, and about 86 ft. above low-water spring-tides. 

 The specific gravity of the rock was found to be 2 698, 

 or about 13*3 cubic ft. to the ton. The calculations of the 

 weights are taken, however, at 14 ft. to the ton, in order 

 to be fully within the mark. There is no approach to 

 uniformity of contour, even at places very near each 

 other, the whole island, indeed, forming one of the most 

 rugged and irregular rocks that can well be imagined." 



It may be well to mention that all outlying islets in 

 these parts are termed " skerries." 



"'In 1852, when landing for the first time upon this 



