32 THE MAINLAND. 



eastern branch terminates just above Kirk wall, at Wideford, 

 which is 720 feet in height. 



The tops of all these hills are covered with heather, forming 

 almost the last stronghold of the grouse and hares in the island. 

 In the hollows, wherever there is sufficient moisture, the cotton 

 grass grows to a great extent, and the heads are finer than we 

 have seen elsewhere. We were particularly struck with this when 

 looking one day from the top of Wideford Hill down on to the 

 hollow between it and the hills lying to the south-west. The 

 whole of this hollow was white, looking much more as if it was 

 covered with snow than anything else. 



A very fine panorama of almost the whole group of the Orkneys 

 may be obtained from Wideford Hill on a clear day, and there is 

 no better view of Kirkwall to be got from any other point. 



After crossing the isthmus between Kirkwall and Scapa, the 

 ground rises somewhat quickly to the east of the town, but there 

 is no high ground anywhere on the east side of the isthmus. 



The isthmus itself is low-lying, and, before they were drained, 

 the Crantit meadows afforded good snipe-shooting, and Waterhens 

 bred in the wetter localities. Through the greater part of this 

 peninsula, which includes the parishes of Holm and St. Andrews, 

 there is little of interest to the lover of scenery or the ornitho- 

 logist, unless it be Mull Head and Deer Sound, before mentioned. 

 Nowhere does the land rise above 300 feet in height, and it only 

 attains to that altitude in one place. There is some heather in 

 the central parts, and we should say the best grouse ground is that 

 belonging to Tankerness. Hares are also plentiful in that district. 

 At St. Mary's there are two lochs belonging to the Gr8emeshall 

 estate, which are said to afford good fishing, and ducks are abun- 

 dant there in the winter, but when passing them in the month of 

 June we saw only a few Mallards and a Coot. There is a fine 

 gloup about a mile or a little more to the south of Mull Head. 



The cultivated area occupies a very large part of the whole 

 island. We have no statistics at hand to give the exact propor- 

 tions, but, roughly speaking, we should say at least a half, and 

 reclam ation of the waste land is still going on. 



