Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-08-20
THE ISLAND OF PAPA STOUR.
Natural Attractions of the Most Nota-
bic OF the Shetland Group.
Edinburg Scotsman.

and for SolemnIty OF sentiment or pOr
ton of the scenery of the Shetland
islands comes within even measurable
distance of the cliffs OF the island OF
Papa Stour which lies off the souths
ernmost horn of St. Magnus bay.
This little island, no more than two
miles long and two and three quarters
broad, is said to have a coast line Of
% miles, so indented is it with woes
and gios, so eaten into and worn away
by the erosive action of the great roll
ers of the Atlantic. 1t is, after Foula
perhaps, the most primitive district OF
the whole Shetland islands. Brand,
who visited it IN 1901, thought it 1.-The
pleasaniest little isle in all tais coun-
try, well furnished with fuel, grass,
corn, rabbits. etc, and with his usual
quaint credulity records how In its
churchyard there "lyeth a stone FIVE
foot long, at the one end two, at
the other one foot broad, concave
from the oRe end to the other, of
which the common Tradition goes,
that this Stone came Shore on that
Isle with a Dead Man tied to it, who
lies buried there beside it." The ISL
and owes It's name to the Irish pap3,
Or missionary priests, by whom Shet>
land was first Christianized, and in it
alone Of all the rest Of the Shetland
archipelago is yet to be seen the sword
dance, described, or rather travesti6ed
by Sir Walter Scott in his account of
the festivities of Johnsmas in the
house of the old udaller, Magnus
Troll. The last imposing relic of that
ancient martial dance, described by
Olnus Magnus, and common to the
Norsemen as to all other people of
northern Europe, it comes in time to
be q mere rustic paraphrase of the
medieval drama of the Seven Cham
pions of Christendom. The music
as well as the words with which it
was accompanied, is still preserved
in the huts of the islanders. But of
late years it has disappeared from the
common festivities of Shetland Yule
and In the next generation even its
memory" will probably be ''clean
| forgot"
The island, which can easily be
visited in ''sixtern, " or six-ored fish
ing yawl, is separated from the main
''roost," which even in the calmest
weather makes it's presence felt to the
landsman in the shape of a long, roll
ing swell. The anchorage is at Hou-
savoi-''the bay of the houses"
the east side of the island, and Low
| tells us that to shorten the passage to
the landing place it is usual to go
Through a vast cavern cut through a
small holm, into which a boat can go
with all her oars ont. Tkis is the
common passage, but it is rather hor-
rible. When one enters the dismal
abyss he sees nothing but q huge
grotto, continued a good way under
the solid rock, without any outlet, and
on each side entrances into other
apartments impossible for a boat. By
and by ali is lighted on sudden by a
large window in the roof, but this
seems only to make the gloom more
dreadful. After rowing some time
longer the boat turns corner and
you then begin to see the outlet. TIE
gloomy horrors of this place are much
heightened by the beating of the waves
on all sides, the rafting of these in
the inner apartments, the murmuring
echo, which seems to express herself
in groans; add to these the croaking
of the cormorants and the cooling of
rock pigeons, all of them in such a
place as this transformed into sounds
of woe. Such effect has it on the
spirits that one is glad to be delivered
from it and regain the open air and
more cheerful ideal that can be in
spired by this most doleful hole.
Hard by the opening to this cavern
| is the Frau or Maiden Stack, of which
the legend common to all isolated
rocks bearing this name is related.
| But the remains of the building on
which the gentleman confined his
daughter to protect her from the ad
dress Of her to him I'm welcome lovers
are no more to be seeD, and nothing
remains to justify the legend but the
tradition that
| Over rocks that are steepest
| Love will find out the way.
The grandcst scenery is on the west
| side of the island, and it battles all de
scription. Its most celebrated caves,
such as Frankie's aud Christie's holes,
are said by Macculloch to be the finest
in Britain, and nothing can exceed
their terrible sublimity. On it's north
east side is row of caverns called the
Nostrils of Fugloe, verltable "clois-
tiers of the ocean" But some of its
lesser caves, such as the Hole of
Bra some, through which a boat can
sail, and the Hole of Bardi, which is
said to go through the island, are per-
feet gems in their way, and would
make the fortune of any watering
place or seaside resort in the south.
| No less wonderful or numerous are
the satellite stacks and skerries which
surround it. The curious table shaped
Lyra or Leera Skerry has inlets to the
light at each of its four corners. Pass
ing under it Ia a boat one can see
light coming from four different di-
rections. Like its neighbor. the Fug-
loe, or Fowl Skerry, its cliffs are ten
anted with birds, and it is said that
while cormorants and guls Indifferent
| " are permitted TO inhabjt Fug1oe