ORKNEY AND SHETLAND ISLEP. 



Trusting that its utility may prove an a^^ology for the haste 

 with which the paper is written, 



I remain, 

 Sir, 

 Always your obliged humble servant, 



G. CUMBERLAND. 



145 



Useful Notes and Obseroationf; re^pccfins; the Islands of 

 Orkney and Shetland. Bij Patrick Neile, A.M. Secre- 

 tary to the Natural History Society of Edinburgh* 



T 



HE circumstance of the shores of Norway being clothed Norway a- 



. . . bounds with 



with fir-trees + , is doubtless a strong analogical argument m trees. The 

 favour of the practicability of raising timber in the Orkney Orkneys, &e. 

 and Shetland islands. 



" In respect to the soil," (says the Bishop of Bergen + ), 

 " it is not the good, rich and black earth, " that favours 

 " the fir-.trees ; nor the clayey soil ; but rather the gravelly, 

 sandy, or moorish lands." This is an observation well 

 calculated to inspire hopes of success. 



'I'housands of young fir-plants ai-e cut, every spring, by Whether 



the peasants of Norway, for food to their cattle. It would plants could 

 ' •" be had fi oai 



not probably be difficult, therefore, to procure quantities Norway. 



of saplings from that country. But if this were found to be 



too troublesome, it may be sugge^ited that the ripe cones 



might be brought over (and these could easily be collected), 



and that the seeds might, by way of trial, be sown where 



the trees were intended to grow. This simple plan might 



* Extracted by permission from his " Tour through some of the 

 Islands of Orkney and Shetland." The spirit of active industry and 

 the consequent Improvements in science, arts and manufactures in 

 every part of our island, cannot be better shewn and promoted than 

 by the travels of intelligent observers. Most of the subjects in the 

 small book before us are of great national importance and interest, 

 particularly at a moment when so many of our sources of prosperity 

 are endangered. — N. 



f The fir trees of Norway are, I find, the /are, or spruce, pinus abjes 

 (not the silver fir); and the gran, or pine, pinus sylvestris, well known 

 by thename of Scots fir. 



\ Nat. Hist, of Norway, Vol. I. p. 143. 



VoE. X\a.— Feb. 1807. P possibly 



