1894.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



27 



of Europe and America. The Hudson's Bay Company's ships and a 

 large number of North Sea whalers annually resorted to it for men and 

 provisions. At one time, I believe, as many as a hundred vessels might 

 have been seen riding in it's capacious roadstead, but of course this is 

 not so now. The herring fishery, abandoned in 1871, was re- 

 sumed in 1890, which proved a good season, as also did 1891 ; but last 

 year the herring fleet, which had increased from 50 to 250 boats, suffered 

 very severely from the ravages of the dog -fish, whose numbers and 

 voracity made the fishing a partial failure. A large number of steam 

 trawlers from Hull and Grimsby call here on their way towards Faroe 

 and Iceland for bait for the deep-sea fishing. Some of these steam 

 trawlers are fitted with capacious wells, in which fish are carried alive 

 for the London and other markets. The population is now about 1,600. 

 Few towns have a finer natural situation; it is built along the margin of 

 a beautiful little bay at the foot and on the lower slopes of a steep hill, 

 commanding one of the finest views in Orkney. It consists mainly of one 

 narrow and crooked street nearly a mile in length. Still the view which 

 the stranger gets as he steams into the harbour is picturesque in the 

 extreme, and the huge mountains of Hoy form a splendid background. 

 An unique appearance is given to the town itself by the curious fashion 

 in which many of the houses are built, their stepped gables turned 

 towards the bay ; and many of the houses have their own separate piers, 

 from which it is easy to obtain fresh fish for breakfast. The harbour 

 itself is a fine natural basin a mile in length and a quarter of a mile broad, 

 and is completely land-locked. I may mention that not far from here is 

 the old sandstone bed which furnishes more fossil fish than any other 

 geological system in Great Britain, and here a portion of the " asterolepis" 

 was found by Hugh Miller, and may be seen in the Stromness Museum. 

 Though less than six inches long, it is part of a huge fish which has been 

 found, varying from 8 feet to 23 feet in length. The portion is one of the 

 central bones of the lower jaw of the monster. 



But to resume. At the beginning of June, 1891, the contractor landed 

 fresh material to enlarge the hut already built for the men, and for a 

 separate hut for himself, also an additional one for the inspector of works, 

 and then commenced the lighthouse in earnest. On the 8th of August, 

 after getting on board the smack coals, sand, gravel, and a small donkey 

 engine for working the cranes, by Mr. Atkin's kind permission, I, with the 

 engineer sent to fix the donkey engine, the contractor and his wife, 

 embarked for the Sule Skerry, which lies N.W. f W., and is distant 

 40 miles from Stromness, and 35 miles N.E. from Cape Wrath. We 

 heaved anchor at three o'clock in the afternoon, and with a light but fair 

 breeze, soon got into the tide of Hoy Sound, which was slight, 

 but of course in our favour ; the tide here runs at the rate of 

 about ten miles an hour, which is about half the tidal speed of the Mersey 



