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REPORT. 



I have the honour to submit my Report on the Salmon, Sea-Trout, and 

 Oyster and Mussel Fisheries in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, which I 

 inspected, by the direction of the Board, during the summer and autumn 

 of 1886. 



THE ORKNEY ISLANDS. 



Twenty-eight inhabited islands ; 39 smaller ones, used for grazing 

 purposes, and locally known as holms ; and 23 waste rocky islets or 

 skerries combine to form the Orcadian group, which is separated from the 

 coast of Caithness by the fierce tides of the stormy Pentland Firth. The 

 greatest length of the group is 53J miles, and its greatest breadth 29J. 

 The land area of the islands is 375*7 square miles, or 240,476 acres. The 

 inland lochs, which are numerous, are said to occupy no less than 20,000 

 acres. 



By far the largest and most important island is Pomona or the Mainland, 

 in which are Kirkwall and Stromness, the only towns in Orkney ; the great 

 lakes of Stenness and Harray ; and the smaller, but still considerable lochs 

 of Boardhouse, Hundland, Swannay, Kirbister, and Tankerness, all of 

 which communicate with the sea. There are also many smaller sheets of 

 water and several large burns or small rivers ; the chief of which is the 

 Durkadale Burn, which traverses the lochs of Hundland and Boardhouse, 

 and falls into the sea near the ruined palace of Birsay after a course of 8 

 miles. All these lochs and streams contain abundance of yellow trout of 

 fine quality ; and, in autumn, great numbers of sea-trout of large size 

 frequent the sea-shores and bays, and ascend to the lochs which commu- 

 nicate with the sea. Salmon are rare, but they have been taken in th© 

 stream which connects the Loch of Kirbister with the sea in the parish of 

 Orphir, and in some other places. 



The island of Pomona has an area of about 150 square miles. It is 25 

 miles in length, and 15 miles in extreme breath ; but it is very irregular in 

 shape, and is so much indented by bays and sounds, that at Kirkwall, the 

 distance across the island from the head of Scapa Bay to the nearest point 

 of Kirkwall Bay, is only about 2 miles. No part of the island is more 

 than 5 miles from the sea. All the islands lying to the south of the 

 Mainland are known as the South Isles, of which Burray, South Ronald- 

 shay, Hoy and Walls, Flotta and Grsemsay are the chief. To the east and 

 north of the Mainland lie the island of Shapinshay — the most fertile 

 and best cultivated of the Orkneys — Gairsay, Veira, Egilsay, and Rousay; 

 while beyond the Egilsay and Stronsay Firths lie the group known as the 



