Year: 1878

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As in Orkney, so in Shetland, no trees
are to be seen. The eye may wander
where it will, and find no shade from the
summer heat, no wayside refuge from the
stormy blast. Long. lines of undulations,
here rough and abrupt, there waving and
contiguous, cleave the sky; great tracks of
barren and uncultivated land on all sides.
In this, Shetland is very different from
Orkney. There you have standardization,
not smiling plains and rich corn-felds, but
plains and fields that would be smiling and
rich if they could, and attempt it. In
Shetland very little cultivation is visible.
Consequently, a solemn gloom and certain
grandeur is apparent; the idea and aspect
of intense solitude are much heighten-
ed; feeling of the utmost repose, though
joined to slight suspicion of monotony.
Long stretches Of moorland with rich
blooms that blend wonderfully with the
blue sky and the white floating clouds.
Hills and hollows undulate around. all
covered with the rich purple gorse that
shelters the scanty amount Of game that
here forms tho sole delight and resource
OF The sportsman. You may wander over
many and many a mile of hill and dale,
and plunge through the gorse, and now
and then get swamped in a morass, and
sometimes for your reward come home at
night with your bag full, and sometimes
return empty-handcd. And you may roam
from early morning to the fast-gathering
shades, when the birds have gone to roost
and are too cunningly nested to be seen or
disturbed, and by chance never meet a
soul. Mile after mile of solitary moor
land, and no one to exchange word with;
no sound to break the silence save the
popping of your own gun, Or the shrill
clang of gull winging its fight across
the island, watching your every motion
with its keen little eyes, and keeping
wisely and we'll out of shot Or sudden
ly raven starts across your path with a
hoarse croak, and spreading his strong
black wings, looks a magnificent creature
as he tries to escape. But you are ready
for any surprise, and before he is out of
range, down he comes, and turning over
and over and over falls with dull thud
upon the earth, that knocks the remaining
life and breath out of him, and terminates
his wild career But it must be a bad
days sport that permits you to drop upon
the fine fellow; sad want of a shot at some
thing, or perhaps the necessity of discharg-
ing barrel, for the gulls and ravens are
scarcely Legitimate prey, unless wanted for
such purposes as mounting or winging.
All this heathery moorland in autumn
turns to a rich brown in the process of
fading, and in every direction the tints of
a declining year meet your eye. In your
walks you notice, from the brow of hill,
how harmoniously this purple or brown
heather blends with the sea-for there the
sea is. You cannot at any time, get very
far away from it in these islands; if you
are turning your back upon in one direc-
tion it is only to meet it in another; there
it ever is, calm and placid and Of exquisite
tints, or restless and raging, according to
its mood. And its mood on one side OF
the other is, more oftener than not, angry
and disturbed; so that the waves beat
themselves against the rocks with a noise
of thunder, and whirl and seethe around
the skerries, and rush into the caverns as
if they would shake their very founda-
tions. Woe betide ihe craft that at such
times ventures too near shGTe. But on a
bracing, breezy day, with plenty of sun to
gid the sky and water and tip the gorse
with gold, from these hills how clear and
sweet the air. Around you nothing but
solitude, nothing but earth and sea and
sky; "le grand all" as the French happily
put it, in an untranslatable expression.
Who can render "le grand monarque" into
its equivalent, its perfect meaning? And
here in Shetland all this wealth of nature
and coloring seems to have been made for
you, and for you alone. The whole earth
sea, and air are yours, to breathe and re-
vel in with full sense of keen enjoyment.
Every nerve in the body responds to the
appeal; drinks in the almost intoxicating,
almost fragrant breeze. Each day the
brain and the sinews seem to gain fresh
tone and strength, to return home like a
giant refreshed.