ZETLAND, or Shetland Islands. The appellation of Zetland, given to this northern cluster of islands, is a corruption of their ancient name. In the oldest northern chronicles, as the Orkneyinga Saga, their denomination is Hialtland, the Land of the Hilt, either from some fancied resemblance in the form of the whole group to the hilt of a sword, or from the warlike propensities of the inhabitants. This name was corrupted by Scotish writers of later times into Yetland or Zetland; the letters Z and Y having in the Scotish dialect the same sound, as is well known, in proper names like Menzies, Monzie, Cockenzie, and the like. The Zetland Islands, along with those of Orkney, form one of the counties of Scotland. Exclusively of the small island called Fair Isle, which lies midway between Orkney and Zetland, and is about twenty miles distant from either cluster, they are situated in the North Sea, between the parallels 59° 52' and 60° 50' north latitude. The meridian of Greenwich passes through them almost at their extreme east, and they stretch to 2° 11' west. They are distant from Norway forty-four leagues, from Aberdeenshire forty-seven, and from Leith ninety-six. In number they are more than one hundred, but of these only thirty-four are inhabited. The population of the islands, by the last census (1831), amounted to 29,392. “The climate of the Zetland islands,” we quote from the work of Dr Edmonstone, a native of the county, “is very variable and damp, although by no means generally unwholesome to their inhabitants. Spring can scarcely be said to commence until April, and there is but little general warmth before the middle of June. The summer terminates for the most part with August, though sometimes it continues through September. Autumn is a very uncertain period, and winter commences with the middle of October, and occupies the remaining months of the year.”

Referring our readers to the article Orkney for the general history and present political state of the county, we shall notice what appears most interesting in the principal islands.

The largest island, Mainland, is about sixty miles long, and varies in breadth from twenty-five miles to one hundred yards; the former is the distance from Sandness to the Noup of Nesting, and the latter is the breadth of the isthmus called Mavis-Grind. The bold and precipitous capes called Fitful Head and Sumburgh Head (both celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in his Pirate), the castle of Scalloway, the green vale of Tingwall, the remains of the chapel of the barons of Burgh, Ronas Hill in the parish of Northmavine, and the town of Lerwick with its harbour, fort, and shipping (See Lerwick ), are the most remarkable objects on the Mainland. The small islet of Moussa, on the eastern coast of the Mainland, contains the most perfect remaining specimen of those circular towers, with gracefully curved walls, perforated by low galleries, which Scotland can boast. This is undoubtedly Scandinavian, and affords a fair presumption that the similar structures in Glenbeg, Dundornadilla in Sutherland, and other Highland districts, belong to the same people. To the north of the Mainland lies Yell, eight miles in breadth and twenty in length. It is a flat island, with much good sheep-pasture, and some arable land, lying along the shores and coasts of the vocs, or ocean inlets. In Yell are the remains of no less than twenty chapels or religious houses, small unadorned buildings, in all probability erected long centuries ago, as votive offerings by tempest-tossed mariners, who barely escaped with life.

Still farther north, and somewhat to the east, is Unst, the most northerly of the British islands, ten miles long and four broad. In this island the law-tings or judicial assemblies of Zetland were once held. They were afterwards removed to Tingwall, on the south-west side of the Mainland. In Unst there is much good grazing, and very valuable arable land. At Burness, near Balta Sound, in this island, Biot, and afterwards Captain Kater, in the years 1817 and 1818, instituted a series of experiments in order to determine the variation in the length of the seconds pendulum. Chromate of iron has lately been found, and in considerable quantity, in Unst, and is indeed its chief treasure. South of Unst, and east from Yell, lies the small fertile island of Fetlar. Eight miles south of Fetlar, and distant from the Mainland two or three miles, is Whalsey. The arable land in this island has been cultivated at considerable expense, and admirably improved; and the results shew what care and a judicious expenditure will accomplish, even in this hyperborean region. Whalsey is surrounded by holms or small islands, on one of which, about sixty years ago, a Russian frigate was wrecked, and almost all on board perished. Bressay, five or six miles long by three broad, lies to the east of the Mainland, and the channel between the islands forms Lerwick harbour, or Bressay Sound, one of the safest and most commodious havens in Britain. The principal entrance is a mile wide, and the anchorage is about three miles long. Within the harbour, towards the north, is the sunk rock called the Unicon, from the vessel of Kirkcaldy of Grange, which was dashed to pieces on it when in pursuit of the infamous Bothwell. To the east of Bressay is the small island of Noss; and on the south-east side of this island lies the holm of Noss, a rock rising almost per [7:21:987]pendicularly to the height of 200 feet, and having its summit covered with short rich pasture. The holm is thirty yards distant from the island, and a communication has been effected and is continued in the following way. A daring islander climbed the perpendicular face of the holm, and drove two strong posts into the ground near the edge of the side next to Noss, and a rope having been conveyed from the larger islet, was fastened to these posts, and the chasm was passed. The craigsman scorned to take advantage of his success, and attempting to return by the rocks, lost his footing and was dashed to pieces. The rope is annually removed before winter, and the communication is re-opened generally in July. The following is the mode of doing it. A stone is fastened to the double or bight of a small cord, the ends of which are secured, the stone is flung till the thrower succeeds in getting the attached string beyond the posts on the holm. When this is accomplished, a stronger line is substituted, and a still stronger one, and the process of substitution is repeated, till a rope of the desired strength has been drawn round the posts, and secured to corresponding stakes on Noss. A wooden box called “the cradle of Noss” is then slung upon the rope, and a person getting into this, easily pushes himself backwards and forwards. Dangerous as all this seems, accidents, it is affirmed, seldom happen. Immense numbers of wild fowl frequent the holm, and their eggs, feathers, and young ones, and the pasture afforded to about a dozen sheep, are deemed a recompense sufficient for the trouble and risk encountered in annually erecting this aerial bridge. Almost opposite to Bressay, on the west side of the Mainland, he the two islands of Burra, separated by a narrow channel, which in one place is so contracted that a wooden bridge is thrown across it to facilitate communication. The soil of these islands is in general of the finest quality, and they produce what in Zetland is regarded as a large quantity of grain. About the middle of the seventeenth century a Dutch squadron was driven by stress of weather on the west side of Burra. Two vessels were lost, but the rest of the fleet succeeded in making a harbour. To the north and west of Burra, and separated from the Mainland by a narrow but troubled strait, lies Papa Stour, an island two miles in length. There are several large caves in this island, open to the sea, which are frequented by numerous seals. One of these caves is lighted from above, by an aperture fifty feet long by twenty broad. Here too may be seen, rising perpendicularly to a great height from its ocean bed, the Stack of Snalaa, a magnificent rock, on the summit of which, from time immemorial, the eagle has had his eyrie. In the bay of St Magnus, tower up the magnificent Drongs, the perforated rocks so finely delineated by Dr Hibbert. Placed far amid the melancholy main is Foula, the most westerly of the Zetland Islands, and with every probability supposed to be the Thule of the Romans. At a distance it presents the appearance of five conical hills, the loftiest of which reaches a height of 1300 feet, an immense elevation in appearance, there being no gradual rise, as in inland mountains. “On reaching the highest ridges of the rocks,” says Dr Hibbert, “the prospect presented on every side is of the sublimest description. The spectator looks down from a perpendicular height of 1100 or 1200 feet, and sees below the wide Atlantic roll its tide. Dense columns of birds hover through the air, consisting of mews, kittywakes, lyres, sea-parrots or guillemots: the cormorants occupy the lowest portions of the cliffs, the kittywakes whiten the ledges of one distant cliff, gulls are found on another, and lyres on a third. The welkin is darkened with their flight; nor is the sea less covered with them as they search the waters in quest of food. But when the winter appears the colony is fled, and the rude harmony produced by their various screams is succeeded by a desert stillness. From the brink of this awful precipice the adventurous fowler is, by means of a rope tied round his body, let down many fathoms; he then lands on the ledges where the various sea-birds nestle, being still as regardless as his ancestors of the destruction that awaits the falling of some loose stones from a crag, or the untwisting of a cord. It was formerly said of a Foula-man, ‘ his gutcher (grandfather) gaid before, his father gaid before, and he must expect to go over the sneug too.’” Twenty miles S.S.W. from Sumburgh Head, the southern extremity of the Mainland, lies the Fair Isle, two miles in length, and about three-fourths of a mile in breadth. On this island the duke of Medina Sidonia, the admiral of the armada, was wrecked while attempting to reach home after his disastrous expedition had failed. The crews of his ship reached the shore, but the islanders are said to have murdered them almost to a man, from a conviction that a famine could not otherwise be warded off. The duke was spared, and having wintered in Zetland, he afterwards reached Spain by way of France.

The natural history of Zetland differs little from that of Orkney, to which we refer. The plants in both clusters of islands are, generally speaking, the same; and a similar remark applies to the zoology.

The geology of Zetland has been discussed at great length both by Professor Jameson and Dr Hibbert; and appended to Neill’s Tour in these islands is a valuable paper on the subject by Professor Traill. Owing to the variety of the rocks, and the easy access to them which the ocean has thrown open, Zetland presents an interesting field to the mineralogist. Primitive clay-slate, intermixed with a few quartz and hornblende beds, abounds in the southern parts of the Mainland. Ronas Hill, and the greater portion of Northmavine, consist of a hard red granite. In Foula the rocks are all micaceous schistus. Bressay and Ness are composed of sandstone, and much of the shores of Yell and Unst are of serpentine.

It is difficult to give any thing at all approaching to an estimate of the trade of Zetland. Its exports are principally salted fish, oil, tallow, butter, skins, stockings, cattle, sheep, and ponies. The imports are of a very miscellaneous description; and as Zetland produces about one third less grain than its inhabitants require, large quantities of meal and flour are annually introduced.

The fisheries, namely, the whale-fishing at Greenland and Davis Straits, and the herring and haaf or deep-sea fishings at home, employ many hands, and bring much wealth into the country.

Of the state of agriculture in these islands it is impossible to speak in very favourable terms. Shirreff in his Survey says, there is reason to believe that the undivided and consequently uncultivated waste lands amount to more than 400,000 acres. This immense tract is pastured in common by the tenants of the adjoining arable lands, which do not exceed 25,000 acres; and in many places the arable land is runrig or interrupted. Little improvement can in such circumstances be expected. Still a few spirited individuals have set an example. The results of their exertions have been most favourable, and are visible; and it is to be hoped that others will be prompted to imitate them. Till the era of the reform bill, Zetland had no representative in parliament, the landholders having no vote for the county-member. This anomaly is now happily removed; and though unwilling to attach undue importance to mere political changes, the writer of these remarks cannot but think, that the alteration produced on the relations of landlord and tenant consequent on the passing of the bill, the inducements now held out to the former to grant leases of some duration, and the more frequent intercourse among themselves and with strangers which an extension(in this case a creation) of the franchise invariably produces; all this will operate favourably both on the commerce and the agriculture of the islands. Owing to their remote situation and their poverty, the lower [7:21:988]orders are more dependent on the mere will of those above them than is desirable; but the great change on their political state to which we have already alluded, and other causes now in operation, will, we trust, diminish, if they do not remove, many of the hardships under which they have hitherto laboured. By all who have visited them, the Zetlanders are found to be a warm-hearted, affectionate, honest, and most hospitable people. (d. n .)