36 THE SOUTH ISLES. 



scenery, that gives to Hoy its great interest to the ornithologist. 

 The sea-eagles, once so numerous, are gone, never, we fear, to 

 return again, though, should they be inclined to do so, we are safe 

 in assuring them that the proprietor will do all in his power to 

 protect them; but the Peregrine still holds his own, nesting in 

 the most inaccessible precipices : the Manx Shearwater burrows 

 in the green and soft places in the cliffs ; while numbers of 

 Kichardson's Skua lord it over the rest of the gull tribe. 



All the coast-line on the north-west of the island from Breibuster 

 Sound to Eackwick is precipitous, varying in height from 300 to 

 over 1100 feet, and, exclusive of the Berry, contains the finest rock- 

 scenery in the islands. The highest cliff in the whole range is at 

 St. John's Head, the land rising on each side to this culminating 

 point. These cliffs are by no means sheer precipices, but in many 

 places have long grassy slopes on which sheep graze in comparative 

 safety, and it is mostly below these slopes that the sea-birds build. 

 Geb's and rocky inlets also break up the coast-line in parts, and 

 there is a very fine one not far from Breibuster, inhabited by a 

 considerable number of Shags and a good colony of Kittiwakes, 

 etc. ; pigeons also inhabit the caves. That remarkable stack, the 

 Old Man of Hoy, lies between St. John's and Eora Heads, and 

 from most accounts the old gentleman has not many years to live, 

 as he is being gradually eaten away at the base by the heavy waves 

 of the Atlantic. 1 At Kackwick the land slopes down very suddenly 

 to the valley, the hamlet being much scattered from pretty high 

 up the slope down to its base. It is here that the best rock-climbers 

 on the island lived, and still do so, and it is through their exertions 

 probably that eagles have become only a name in Orkney. 



All this coast-line just described slopes down on the landward 

 side more or less abruptly to a valley through which runs the part- 

 road, part-track to Kackwick from Hoy Lodge. At this latter place 

 the proprietor is now taking in a considerable extent of ground, 



1 Mr. Moodie-Heddle, however, informs us that the base is conglomerate, and 

 that it stands upon a piece of fire rock, so he does not think it runs much risk of 

 perishing, though a fragment of the softer sandstone forming the stack may some- 

 times fall off. 



