72 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 
of things known as the “ truck system/' which is rife 1 
at the present hour amongst these industrious people. 
Gladly did we turn from these horrors to listen, 
to the story of the Orkney man Einar, who is 
deservedly regarded as the great benefactor of 
the Shetlands, inasmuch as to him is attributed 
the discovery of peat fuel—a substitute for wood 
or coal. At the present day, when the peat is re¬ 
moved—as we saw the operation performed—in many 
places the gravel which underlies this deposit is 
thickly covered with the roots of hazel, willow, and 
birch trees, proving that this treeless region was once- 
blessed with umbrageous woods. To Einar the people 
owed their comfortable fires during the long winter 
season; in return, the grateful Shetlanders almost 
deified their benefactor, and to this day he is known, 
as Torf Einar. We heard, too, of the long suffering,, 
patient endurance of the martyr St. Magnus, of the 
thirteenth century, whose fame is preserved by the 
church dedicated to him, and the Bay which bears liis 
name. 
This little town of Lerwick is as quaint a place to 
stop at as the traveller will find anywhere. The houses 
are inconveniently crowded together, some stand on. 
the margin of the water, and the narrow passages which 
serve as streets are so ill contrived they but add to the 
