The record-union., 1891-03-16
THE SHETLANDS.
Farming, Fishing and Enjoying Life
Under the Polar Circle.
The Crofters and Their Holdihgs-Shet-
land and Orkney Towns-Industry
and Hospitality of the Population
Curious Winter Amusements and
Novel Pets-How Crofts Are Rated.

and Hospitality of the Population
Curious Winter Amusements and
Novel Pets-How Crofts Are Rated.
The groups of scattered islands to the
north of Scotland seem almost beyond the
bounds of the civilized world, but to
statement of this kind the people living
on them would render an emphatic dis
sent. The Shetlands and Orkneys lie, it
is true, almost within the bounds of the
Arctic Circle, and in what is commonly
supposed to be an extremely inhospitable
part of the world, but the people have
laws, schools and churches, send MEM
Der to the British Parliament, enjoy a
considerable trade, maintain frequent in
tercourse with the mainland of England
and Scotland, and have so high an opin-
ion of their rocky home that under any
circumstances they are 10th to leave it.
The approach either to the Shetlands or
Orkneys is forbidding, and calculated to
give the stranger an unfavorable impress
sion of these last refugees of a northern
civilization. The coast is one of the wild
est and most rocky to be found in any
part Of the world. No bodies of land of
similar size exist anywhere which have
so much sea coast. The sea line is every
where cut into deep inlets, and the action
of the waters, continued through ages,
has wrought the cliffs into many fantastic
forms. Arches, deep caves into which
the tide rushes with a crash that appears
to shake the mountain, huge cliffs cut
away by the action of wind and tide from
the main body and left standing alone
like gigantic monumentS-vaSt natural
obelisks-abound on every part of the
coast. HarborS are not lacking, but the
pilot needs to be well acquainted with
the neighborhood, with the winds, the
tides and currents, for the entrance to
more than one harbor is SO narrow that a
| stone may be thrown from the deck of 4
ship to the overhanging wall on either
| side.
The islands are more numerous than
is commonly supposed. The Shetland
group comprises 100 islands, islets and
| rocks, of which twentythree are in
habited, the principal being the Main
land, as Shetland is called, an island sixty
miles long by from three to ten in width;
Yell, twenty miles by six, and Unset,
eleven by five. There are Seventy-three
islands in the Oakney group, of which
| twenty-eight are inhabited, with total
area of $40 square miles. The surface of
both Shetlands and OakneyS closely re-
sembles that of North Scotland, being
rugged, much broken by ravines, and eX-
hibiting the finest description of noun
| tain scenery. Any one of the larger
islands is miniature Scotland, for in an
extremely circumscribed space may be
found most of the characteristics Of both
highland and lowland.
The people have two industries, farm
ing and fishing, but the farming is of a
primitive character, and the holdings all
being small, cultivation is mostly done by
use of the spade. Not all crops are
adapted to the Shetland climate and soil
Oats, rye and one or two other coarse
grains do well, but wheat is likely to fail
The islands are so small that when high
winds or heavy storms prevail the sea
spray is driven clear across from shore to
shore and the salt often ruins the growing
crops, which are then said to be sea-
gusted.a All crops are sometimes failure
on this account. but no general famine
has ever prevailed in either group, for the
| reliance of the people is not so much upon
agriculture as upon the sea, and their ex-
ports, even in bad crop years, are suffi-
| cient to provide them an abundance even
without the products of the soil. The
small holdings of the tenant farmers are
known as crofts, and are rated in one of
four ways. By the first method fair
rent is charged, and the tenant works for
himself both on land and sea, the land
lord having no concern or interest in his
By the second method a rent is paid,
but the fish, the right to catch which is
frequently included in the croft-holding,
are turned over to the landlord. Not as a
right nor as a part of the rent, for the
landlord purchases the fish, usually at a
fair price, dependent on the profit to be
made by their sale after being cured. BY
the third method rent is paid, alto
gether disproportioned to the presumed
value of the property, including the right
to fish, and the crofter fishes for the land
lord, the latter receiving without pay
ment all the catch. By the fourth method
the land is rented to middleman, who
pays the landlord fixed sum year by
year for q term of years, and then
SqueeZes what he can out of the tenant.
The results of the last three of these sys-
TENS have not been favorable, for, of
course, the tenant, as well as the land
lord. is anxious to make the best of the
bargain, and the temptation to duplicity
and double dealing is very strong. In
some quarters the lease system prevails,
and there is q tendency to make it more
general; but as yet the prevailing systems
are those already described. The desire
to pay no more rent than is absolutely
necessary renders the people very eau
tlous. They. wish to appear poor and
frequently, instead of depositing in the
banks which do business in several of the
islands, they put their money into silver
and gold coin, and store it away in their
houses or conceal it in some spot known
only to themselves.
There is general conviction that the
islands are better suited to grazing than
to farming, and more attention is now
being paid to stock-raising than ever be-
fore. The stock is not of a high grade,
| all animals except the cows being small,
the diminutive size being probably due
to the hardships they experience in the
effort to find living. The stock are
never sheltered. The ponies, cows and
sheep are allowed to run upon the
mountains, and only when the snow falls
so deep as to prevent their getting at the
withered grass and heritage underneath
is any attempt made to feed them. The
ponies and cattle eat seaweed when the
grass of the hills gives out, and have even
been known to feed on those portions of
| the fish which are thrown aside by the
cutters in preparation for drying. The
exports of live stock are considerable,
numbering in a year over 1000 cattle,
| 1000 ponies of what are known as the
| Shetland breed, and upwards of Il, 900
sheep. In addition to live stock, no Shet-
| land farm is complete without a hennery,
| and millions of eggs are every year sent
away, as many as 100000 going by a sin
| gle steamer.
| As. already indicated, fishing is the
! principal industry, to which farming is
| subservient. The two are generally COM
( bined in the same family, the men doing
the fishing, the women the farming. The
| fisheries are to certain extent controlled
| by the proprietors of the land, but this
rule is not universal, for there are some
proprietors who own what is known as a
land-holding and do not control any por-
| ton of the fishing rights, nor do the men
who actually fish often cure and prepare
| their own fish for market. Usually the
,r.l @f1e CT.