ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 33 



standing alone as if to warn or taunt the daring 

 mariner, we passed the famed " Old Man of Hoy " a 

 tall, gaunt pillar of unhewn native rock, uprising from 

 the water to a height of 1180 feet in direct perpendicu- 

 larity. Its extreme peculiarity causes it to be well 

 known to every sailor in the north, and, had it existed 

 in the Eubcean sea, or on the coast of Samothrace, its 

 praises would not have been unsung in Sapphic stanza, 

 or Pindaric ode. 



It has been conjectured that these islands derive 

 their name from the seal ore, in the language of the 

 Northmen, signifying a seal. They formerly belonged 

 to Denmark ; and it was in these straits and narrow 

 seas that the chiefs of the Vikingr or Scandinavian 

 pirates made their predatory excursions and committed 

 their unhallowed depredations : 



" For thither came in times afar, 

 Stern Lochlin's sons of roving war; 

 The Norsemen, trained to spoil and blood, 

 Skilled to prepare the raven's food ; 

 Kings of the main their leaders brave, 

 Their barks the dragons of the wave." 



Lay of the Last Minstrel. 



In 1468 the islands were pawned to Scotland for 

 50,000 florins, and the pledge has never been 

 redeemed. 



At 6.30 P.M. we dropped anchor in the blue harbour 



D 



