THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLANDS 



19; 



tory and prestige for Greece in the Peace 

 Treaty which the Allies forced the repre- 

 sentatives of Turkey to sign at Sevres 

 (see page 167). 



It is at Constantinople that the prob- 

 lems of the Near East have always cen- 

 tered in their acutest form. There, where 

 teeming thousands throng the Bridge of 

 Galata ; where twenty races meet and 

 clash with differences of blood and faith 

 never yet cloaked beneath even a pre- 

 tense of friendliness ; where fanaticism 

 and intrigue play constantly beneath the 

 surface of oriental phlegmatism and spo- 

 radically break forth in eddies of barbaric 

 reaction; where all the Great Powers of 

 Europe have for generations practiced 

 the arts of a devious diplomacy — there, I 

 say, has always been found the real 



storm-center of the danger zone of Eu- 

 rope. 



There it is that the currents which 

 cause the whirlpool of the Balkans have 

 both their origin and their end. This 

 imperial city, for nearly two thousand 

 years a seat of power, still clutches the 

 key to commerce for both the East and 

 the West. 



Strategically and commercially a coign 

 of vantage, Constantinople in capable 

 hands means most of all that for which 

 armies and navies nowadays contend. 

 He who can foretell its fate can read a 

 wider future than any of us can now im- 

 agine ; for, as the fall of Constantinople 

 five centuries ago produced, so the wise 

 disposition of it may calm the whirlpool 

 of the Balkans. 



THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLANDS-A MYS- 

 TERIOUS GROUP OF ISLANDS 



By Charles S. Olcott 



WHEN the great fleet of Admiral 

 Jellicoe rushed to the support 

 of Admiral Beatty, in the most 

 stupendous naval conflict of history, it 

 left a mysterious base, presumably at 

 Kirkwall, in the Orkneys. When Lord 

 Kitchener went down to his too-early 

 death, it was in a ship off the coast of 

 the Orkneys. When the American mine- 

 sweeping squadron, under Rear Admiral 

 Joseph Strauss, U. S. N., undertook the 

 unprecedented task of clearing the North 

 Sea of its mine barrage, the base of oper- 

 ations was in the Orkneys.* 



If you were to ask the passengers on 

 any transatlantic steamship, you would 

 find but few who could tell, very defi- 

 nitely, even the position of the islands on 

 the map — whether they were nearer Ice- 

 land than Scotland ; whether Shetland 

 was the northernmost or southernmost 

 of the group ; whether there were two 

 islands or one hundred and fifty. And 



* See, in the National Geographic Maga- 

 zine, "The North Sea Mine Barrage." by Cap- 

 tain Reginald R. Belknap, U. S. N., in Febru- 

 ary, 1919, and "The Removal of the North Sea 

 Mine Barrage," by Lieutenant-Commander 

 Noel Davis, U. S. N., in February, 1920. 



if you were to inquire as to the chief 

 business of the northernmost group, the 

 entire company would agree, most likely, 

 that it is the raising of Shetland ponies 

 rather than the curing and packing of her- 

 ring (see supplement, Map of Europe). 

 The mystery surrounding the islands 

 and the general lack of knowledge con- 

 cerning them are both quite consistent 

 with their history. When the fierce 

 Norsemen descended upon the shores of 

 the Orkneys, they found no foe to con- 

 test their coming. Their exploits were 

 sung triumphantly by those who took 

 part in them, and repeated through suc- 

 ceeding generations, until the narratives 

 were gathered together in the Orkneyinga 

 Saga, forming the history of three cen- 

 turies of violence and bloodshed. 



Yet nowhere is there mention of a 

 native population to be overcome, though 

 numerous mounds, brochs, or towers, 

 graves, stone implements, and other relics 

 told of the existence there of a large 

 population. It is known, too, that mis- 

 sionaries or monks visited the islands to 



