18 THE NORTH ISLES. 



There are three or four hills in the island, the highest, Fitty Hill, 

 being 556 feet, the others varying from 250 feet to 350 feet. 

 Roughly speaking, the whole of the island to the south-east of 

 Pierowall is cultivated, the rest bare moorland and grass. Leav- 

 ing the road that runs due south from Pierowall, the town of 

 Westray, just opposite the foot of Fitty Hill we come almost 

 immediately on to the heather, which occupies the slopes and 

 bases of all the hills, it being of a better quality on the east side, 

 where it is sheltered from the westerly gales. At the same time, 

 though there are no Grouse resident on the island, a few, we are 

 given to understand, are occasionally driven across from Rousay in 

 the winter. Numbers of Lapwings breed on the heather at the 

 base of the hills ; further up we found a few Common Gulls and 

 Golden Plover, and a Wild Duck was flushed off her nest. At a 

 small marshy loch a pair of Black-headed Gulls seemed, by their 

 actions, to be breeding. Elsewhere the ground was covered with 

 grass, and in the damp hollows there was abundance of cotton grass. 

 On the west side many places were blown bare or cut up into 

 channels by the heavy westerly gales. Here and there, where there 

 was a little moisture, the runs of the Field Vole were visible. 

 Above Noup Head the ground is again covered with a sort of 

 stunted heather ; and on the rocks are colonies of rock birds and 

 some Herring Gulls, but we did not notice any Shags or Cormorants, 

 and Puffins were scarce. We saw four Ravens, probably bred about 

 the rocks in the Head ; these are by no means common in Orkney. 



Another day we went round Bow Head, and on our way thither 

 passed a large number of kelp-furnaces, which seemed, from per- 

 sonal observation, the largest manufactory of that article in the 

 islands; the smell from the heaps of rotting seaweed was most 

 disgusting. With the exception, perhaps, of a few Rock Pigeons, 

 no birds breed on the Bow, and even at Noup Head the greatest 

 number of rock-birds seemed to be on the west side. The rocks at 

 and around Bow Head appear to be not more than from 80 to 100 

 feet high ; the top? next the sea are perfectly bare of everything 

 for some 40 or 50 yards inland, at which distance there is a 

 regular beach of stones, which shows that the sea must wash over 



