FEATURES OF THE ORKNEY ISLES. 7 



This, however, might well arise from the expense of planting and 

 replanting; and, seeing that no remuneration can possibly be 

 expected for all the outlay, no tree at the present time being of 

 any use for timber, or likely to be, and that these plantations are 

 only of use as affording a little shelter to the houses, and for 

 ornament, they can perhaps only be regretted from an ornithologist's 

 point of view, as, by their attractions, increasing the number of 

 species both resident and migratory. 



Hardwood trees, such as plane or sycamore, mountain ash, 

 and wych elms are the common trees here, the first named being 

 the commonest, and found round every house where there is any 

 plantation at all. 



No species of fir or larch seems now able to stand the climate. 

 This we noticed particularly in the plantation at Muddiesdale, close 

 to Kirkwall, one of the largest in the district; as here, all the larch, 

 and nearly all the firs, were dead or dying, the former being 

 covered to an inordinate extent with lichens. 



Perhaps the largest planted area is that round Balfour Castle, 

 on the island of Shapinsay ; others of large extent exist at Birstane 

 on the Mainland, at Westness in Eousay, and at Melsetter in Hoy. 



The largest trees are those about the Earl's and Bishop's Palaces 

 in the town of Kirkwall, where they have the most protection from 

 the wind : but, on the road leading up to the Gallows Hill, we 

 noticed that all the trees along the roadside were dead or dying. 



Of rivers proper Orkney has none, though there are plenty of 

 small burns, many of which are so obstructed by mill dams as to 

 be of little practical use for fishing purposes. Of these burns, 

 Berriedale in Hoy ; the burn that flows through Durka Dale ; the 

 burn of Orphir, and Grsemeshall burn on the Mainland ; and Sourin 

 in Kousay, are the most important. 



In lochs, however, Orkney shows more favourably ; and there 

 are few islands, except perhaps Shapinsay and Flotta, that have not 

 one or more, some of considerable size, such as Stenness and Harray 

 on the Mainland. Many of these contain trout, and some of very 

 large size, as witness the one caught at Loch Stenness, in October 

 1888, which weighed 30 Ibs. 



