THE SOUTH ISLES. 



HOY AND WALLS. 



THE island of Hoy, whose greatest length is fourteen miles, with 

 a width varying from four to five miles, contains the three divisions 

 of Hoy, and North and South Walls, the latter being almost an 

 island in itself. South Walls is almost wholly cultivated, there 

 being only a very small piece of rough ground in the centre and 

 south covered with the remains of stunted heather and coarse 

 grass. 



With the exception of Melsetter and the land immediately 

 adjoining the sea as far as Mill Bay, and again at Hoy in the ex- 

 treme north-east of the island, and the small hamlet of Eackwick 

 on the west, the whole of Hoy and North Walls is uninhabited, 

 the country itself not being adapted for cultivation. It is -how- 

 ever capable of grazing a good number of sheep for the greater part 

 of the year, and there is also abundant summer pasturage for 

 cattle. The whole of this district is mountainous, being divided by 

 valleys through which run several small burns, and in which the 

 lochs lie. These lochs are, unfortunately, connected with the sea 

 only on the west side, the out-running burns having a fall varying 

 from fifty up to several hundred feet almost sheer down to the 

 sea, thus effectually barring out the sea-trout from gaining access 

 to them. For some reason burn-trout do not seem to have thriven 

 here, though introduced, together with Loch Leven trout, into 

 Heldale water, and Mr. Moodie-Heddle fancied they had been 

 carried down the burns during the spawning season and thus 

 destroyed. 



All this large extent of country is covered with heather of 

 different degrees of utility, and divided by numerous burns, and it 

 is this wild mountainous character, as well as its unrivalled cliff- 



