THE WESTEEN ISLES. 



KOUSAY. 



THIS island, lying north of the Mainland, and separated from it 

 by the Sound of Eynhallow, is of considerable extent, containing 

 in all about 15,000 acres. A very fair proportion is cultivated, 

 and besides, on the south and west, there is a large extent of good 

 green grazing ground. There is an excellent road running all 

 round the island. The whole of the coast-line is rocky ; low, and 

 mixed with patches of rough shingle on the south and east, and 

 on the north and west rising to cliffs of considerable altitude. 

 These cliffs afford nesting sites for a goodly number of rock birds, 

 sone Rock Pigeons ; and in one place a pair of Peregrines are 

 continually seen, though the nest has not been discovered. A 

 detached stack of rock, called the Lobist, on the west side, is 

 covered on the top with nests of the Herring Gull. A peculiarity 

 of the shingle is that it is composed of flat stones, and this appar- 

 ently arises from the fact that the rock from which the shingle origi- 

 nated is very soft, and easily split into large slabs, which again break 

 up into smaller, but still flat, pieces. These large slabs are much 

 used for roofing cottages. Inside the cultivated area, which natur- 

 ally lies near the coast, the ground is heathery, and rises to a height 

 of between 800 and 900 feet ; most of this is good grouse ground. 

 Ron say contains six lochs, but three of these are small and of 

 no interest ; the other three, however, all contain trout of good 

 quality. Two of these lochs, in the centre of the island, called the 

 "Muckle" and the Pirie" waters, are connected, and a burn runs 

 out of them into the sea at Sourin on the north side of the island. 

 The third, called " Wasbister," is low down, very near the sea-level, 

 and only about 150 yards from the sea itself; a small burn runs 

 out of it into the sea, but, like the burn that runs out of the other 



