64 the ornithologist's guide 



us as far as Scappy Bay, a distance of twelve or 

 fourteen miles from Stromness and one mile from 

 Kirkwall, and then engaged two carts to carry our 

 boat and luggage over land to Kirkwall, a practice 

 frequently resorted to in order to avoid the long 

 distance round by water. We stopped two days 

 at Kirkwall, and then went in a sloop to Sandy, 

 distant about fifteen or twenty miles, our boat 

 being towed astern. We remained in Sandy about 

 three weeks. Mr. Strang, a very hospitable and 

 intelligent gentleman, resides here, at Lopeness, 

 near the lighthouse, who treated me very kindly, 

 and gave me all the information he could respec- 

 ting the localities where I should find the different 

 birds, and I may justly say he is the best ornitho- 

 logist I met with in Orkney ; here I got the Red- 

 necked Phalerope, Eider Duck, and Arctic Gull, but 

 the latter was not very plentiful. There is only 

 one lodging-house at Sandy, and I would recom- 

 mend any traveller going there to make an agree- 

 ment about his lodgings before entering, without 

 which precaution he is sure to be imposed upon ; 

 I paid more here than at any other place where 

 I have travelled. We proceeded to Addy, a di- 

 stance of seven miles, where we got lodgings at a 

 moderate rate ; a small island lies off of this, called 

 the Holm of Addy, where the Arctic Gull, Common 



