RAMBLES OF A GEOLOGIST. 409 



by the lassies of Orkney to the dress of their female neigh- 

 bours all over the empire, has led to much tasteful dressing 

 among themselves. Orkney, on its gala days, is a land of 

 ladies. What seems to be the typical countenance of these 

 islands unites an aquiline but not prominent nose to an oval 

 face. In the ordinary Scotch and English countenance, when 

 the nose is aquiline it is also prominent, and the face is thin 

 and angular, as if the additional height of the central feature 

 had been given it at the expense of the cheeks, and of lateral 

 shavings from off the chin. The hard Duke-of-Wellington 

 face is illustrative of this type. But in the aquiline type of 

 Orkney the countenance is softer and fuller, and, in at least 

 the female face, the general contour greatly more handsome. 

 Dr Kombst, in his ethnographic map of Britain and Ireland, 

 gives to the coast of Caithness and the Shetland Islands a 

 purely Scandinavian people, but to the Orkneys a mixed race, 

 which he designates the Scandinavian-Gaelic. I would be 

 inclined, however, preferring rather to found on those traits 

 of person and character that are still patent, than on the un- 

 authenticated statements of uncertain history, to regard the 

 people as essentially one from the northern extremity of 

 Shetland to the Ord Hill of Caithness. Beyond the Ord 

 Hill, and on to the northern shores of the Frith of Cromarty, 

 we find, though unnoted on the map, a different race, a race 

 strongly marked by the Celtic lineaments, and speaking the 

 Gaelic tongue. On the southern side of the Frith, and ex- 

 tending on to the Bay of Munlochy, the purely Scandinavian 

 race again occurs. The sailors of the Danish fleet which 

 four years ago accompanied the Crown Prince in his expe- 

 dition to the Faroe Islands were astonished when, on land- 

 ing at Cromarty, they recognised in the people the familiar 

 cast of countenance and feature that marked their country 

 folk and relatives at home ; and found that they were simply 

 Scandinavians like themselves, who, having forgotten their 



