Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-12-14

| Morse decent, and are poor, proud and
| lnsolent. The herring fishing industry
| has within few years given both the
| Orkneys and Shetlands unusual prosper
ity, and as the total catch of all fish
on the Shetland coasts now
| equals one-third of the entire
annual catch for Scotland, it would
seem that the Scotch were destined to
reap as great rewards from this source
as formerly did the Dutch. Previous TO
| the British imposition of salt duties in
| l7l2, the fisheries of Shetland were in
| the hands of the Dutch, who, 1t is said
| derived an annual profit of SIS, 200, 900
| from the same, or the enormous profit
! during their entire control of 81 900,
| 600 600. More than 1000 "busses'' or
fishing vessels might then have been seen
in Lerwick harbor ut one time: while
few miles from Lerwick, towards Scallo-
way, the ancient capital of Shetland, ia
still seen the Hollauder's Knowe,'' OF
hillock, where in the old times when the
Dutch fishers aud merchants were IN the
ascendant, was held a great annual fair,
where the simple islanders bartered their
1ish and woolens for tobacco, spirits and
other luxures from Ans erdam.
Other industries Of the islands are very
marvellous pattern and delicaoy of text
ure; sheep raising, regarding which most
interesting tales are told of the carrying
OF sheep for summer grazing to almost
inaccessible ami uninhabited islands;
and the native cattle have been i'm
proved by cross with the Southern
Shorthorus ana the Scottish Polled An
gus. In the Orkneys there are OF late
years MANY extensive and eXcellently
cultivated farms; and during 1886 over
20. 900, 0OO eggs were exported. The
salubrity of the climate in both these
islands groups is remarkable. Though
SO far north that in the Longest day OF
the year the sun rises at two minutes past
three, setting at twenty minutes past
nine, newspaper can be
READ AT MIDNIGHT
and the lark begins singing at l o'clock
in the morning, and in the shortest day
there are only six hours and seven
minutes between the rising and setting
OF the sun, the mean temperature is ae
high as forty-six degrees. This Is I'M
doubleday owing to the influence of the
gulf stream. Spring begins in April;
summer terminates about the middle of
September; and then after a few weeks
of clustering weather there Is a month Of
the most beautiful and genial weather,
answering to our own "Iudiau sum-
mer,' and called here "the peerie |
summer; ''peerie" in Orkney, Shet- !
land and Fifshire, Scotland, meaning
'wee, tiny, little, or brief.
1t was not very long ago that the Ork- |
neys, and especially the Shetland |
islands, were regarded as wholly remote |
fl ON and inaccessible to the civilized |
world. The Revolution of November, |
1858, was not known of in Shetland until |
the following May. As late as 1904 the |
British mails for three or four months
time would arrive at the same hour.
The first steamer appeared of the Shet-
land coast in 1882, the peassntry believ-
ing it TO be ship OF FIRE; and 1t was not |
until 1917 that one was seen in the ports
of the North Isles. They still have many
anecdotes here of the effect OF its arrival
ut Lerwick. A sample one is that on the
occasion of the craft blowing off steam
with great noise, two simple islanders
engaged in gathering limpets of the
rocks nearly went mad with fright. At |
length, surveying the :freship' mon
ster with desperate dismsy, the stronger
minded Of the two handed his snuff horn |
to his ompsnion with the exhortation,
ooh, Jamie, Jamie, take doc a snuff,
for dool snun nae ma;r' wi me till we