FEATURES OF THE ORKNEY ISLES. 5 



especially in Hoy and the Mainland, on the shores at the mouth 

 of Hoy Sound ; and also in Westray and K Eonaldsay. When 

 just taken out of the furnace, kelp looks very like a cinder, and 

 has a saline taste. 



Wheat does not ripen so far north, but oats, bear, and barley, 

 though often very late, give good crops. Turnips, however, and 

 grass, grow well, giving good pasture and feeding for cattle. 



Although, perhaps, a minor branch of farming, no notice of 

 agricultural resources in these islands would be complete without 

 mentioning poultry. Without going into statistics, the amount of 

 eggs exported from there is enormous, amounting to thousands of 

 dozens weekly. No wonder that fowls in these parts are often 

 called " the Orkney Bank." 



In an abstract rental of the Bishopric of Orkney, capons are 

 specially mentioned, and although chickens were only valued at Id., 

 and poultry at 3d., these are quoted as high as 6Jd. each. Since 

 those times, however, the fashion of making capons seems to have 

 died out. 



From this extract it would seem that poultry, even in those 

 days, was an article of considerable importance. The large size and 

 good quality of the Orkney fowls has been attributed, and we think 

 with great likelihood, to the abundance of insect life formed by the 

 masses of decaying seaweed lying on the shore, or scattered as 

 manure over the fields, and this must have a great influence on 

 their egg-producing capabilities. 



Owing to their being wholly surrounded and so much inter- 

 sected by sea, and also in no slight degree to the presence of the 

 Gulf Stream, the temperature of the Orkneys is very equable. 

 Great heat, even in the long days in the height of summer when the 

 sun is almost ever present, is unknown, but so again is any intense 

 cold, and it is rare that hard frost lasts for any time, nor does snow 

 lie long. Fogs are more prevalent in the summer and early autumn 

 than high winds. Mr. Tudor, in his Orkneys and Shetland} p. 199, 

 remarks that Mr. Scott of the Meteorological Office pointed out to 

 him that the special characteristic of the Orcadian climate is the 



1 The, Orkneys and Shetland. J. R. Tudor. Stanford, London, 1883. 8vo. 



