6 THE ORNITHOLOGIST S GUIDE 



sums of money are annually brought into Lerwick 

 by the fishing-ships, particularly by the Greenland- 

 men, for the purpose of paying the wages of the 

 crews and for victualling the ships, by which the 

 commercial people of the town are great gainers, 

 as they supply the sailors with whatever they need, 

 and are the agents for their pay. 



There is no regular market at Lerwick, but the 

 town is well though not regularly supplied with 

 provisions from the country at a comparatively 

 low rate. The beef is small and fine-flavoured, but 

 is rarely fat ; it varies from threepence to fivepence 

 per pound, and is either sold by the quarter or en- 

 tire, several families joining together and buying 

 the whole bullock : the poorer classes seldom in- 

 dulge in this luxury. The sheep are small, gene- 

 rally in better condition than the oxen, and mode- 

 rately fat, and may be bought for from six to ten 

 shillings \ a lamb for two or three shillings : du- 

 ring my last, visit I bought a lamb for two shillings, 

 which when dressed weighed nine pounds. Veal is 

 extremely cheap, the price of a calf being only 

 2s. 6J., while the skin alone is worth one third of 

 the money ; it is very poor, and is generally killed 

 when only a few days old. If you ask a Shetlander 

 the age of his calf when exposed for sale, his an- 

 swer invariably is, (( Three days old tomorrow^' 



