THE MAINLAND, SHAPINSAY, AND 

 COPINSAY. 



THE MAINLAND. 



POMONA, or the Mainland, as it is always called by the 

 Orcadians, is the largest island of the group, and it is on this 

 account that it derives the latter name. It is about twenty- 

 six miles long in its greatest length, and fourteen broad in its 

 greatest width. In two places it is nearly severed by the sea, 

 viz., between Scapa and Kirkwall, where the breadth is only a 

 mile and a quarter, and again at the south-eastern extremity of 

 Deer Sound, where the parish of St. Andrews is almost divided by 

 a very narrow isthmus, over which runs the main road. 



The greater part of the coast-line is rocky, and is much 

 cut up by bays and firths on its north-eastern side, the chief of 

 these being the Bay of Firth, Inganess Bay, and Deer Sound, the 

 two principal indentations on the south side being the Bay of 

 Ireland and Scapa Bay. As is usually the case, the most pre- 

 cipitous parts are those facing the two oceans ; on the west side 

 the highest cliffs lie between Costa Head in the north and Breck- 

 ness Head in the south, close to which latter place is the celebrated 

 Black Craig. On the east, the rocks, from the Point of Ayre, 

 terminate in the bold rocky headland of Mull Head, in Low's time 

 tenanted by a pair of Sea Eagles, and which, that author remarks, 

 had been thus occupied from time immemorial. It is almost need- 

 less to add there are no eagles there now. 



The absence of clean sandy shores is noticeable, but there 

 are a few patches cropping up here and there, as at Skaill in the 

 west, at Waulkmill Bay and Scapa Bay in the south, and Birstane 

 Bay in the north-east. 



