1 realis. Their motion, in this case, is in various directions, ex- Aurora Bo tremely swift, and as it were in séparate columns, resembling somewhat the evolutions of a great army. Their Íower extremities are distinctly defined, and deeply tinged with the colours of the rainbow; but their upper ones are tapering and less marked. In several places, at once, they kindle into a blaze, dart along in almost all directions for some seconds at a time; and then, as if by the strength of their exertions they had spent their force, they are extinguished in a moment, leaving a brown tract in the sky behind them. Near the place where they disap peared, in a short time they flash out anew, and with equal rapidity trace the same path in similar motions, and again expire in the same manner. Thus they often continue for several hours together, to the great satisfaction and amusement of the spectators on land, and advantage of the mariner, when they gradually die away, and leave through the whole heavens a colour resembling that of brass. If the night be uncommonly still, and their motions very rapid, a whizzing noise has been thought to have been distinctly heard from them at various intervals. This beautiful coruscation, which has never yet been satisfactorily explained, is said to have appeared much seldomer eighty or ninety years ago than it does at present. The hills composing the rugged tract that skirts the west- Soil ern coast, as well as those that intersect the Mainland, and occupy some of the other islands, are seldom single and detached, but for the most part formed into ridges of some extent, with small intervening valleys; and their tops, instead of rising high into a conical form, are generally either flat or rounded. Some few of them are almost en tirely covered with verdure. The bottoms of most of them consist of corn fields, interspersed with patches of rich old grass, excellently fitted for feeding black cattle. The Soil. Tenure of Jands. soil consists of sandy or clayey loam. Their sides produce an excellent mixture of heath and grass for sheeppasture, on a thin stratum of peat-moss; while their tops are usually brown, on a bottom of peat-moss, clay, or gravel. There are spots on some of them delightfully romantic, where the attention is arrested, and the ear pleased, with the murmurs of the rills; and the eye feasts on flowers that rear their heads, and shed their fragrance, amidst various kinds of shrubs. These islands contain almost every variety of soil; and these varieties are so intermixed that scarce any one farm is in this respect uniform. The soil is in general of no great depth, and a considerable proportion of the surface consists of a mossy soil, mixed with other materials. All the soils are thin or shallow, being seldom more than one or two feet in depth, without any intervening strata; but, with few exceptions, they are uncommonly fertile. The rocks on which the soil rests, and which, in many places, are so soft and friable as to break before the plough, appear, by their decomposition, to prove favourable to vegetation, or to afford food for plants. The strata, consisting of mixtures of clay, sand-stone, and lime-stone, appear mixed with a considerable quantity of bituminous matter, which in all probability gives much assistance to vege tation. Property in land is held in the Orkneys in a variety of forms, which may be reduced to three: 1st, King's lands, which had formerly belonged to the Earls of Orkney, but which had been, in process of time, feued cut or granted in perpetuity to vassals, who became bound to pay for ever the old rents, which were usually taken in kind, on account of the scarcity of money. 2dly, Kirk lands, or those which anciently belonged to the bishops and clergy of Orkney, and which are now held by private persons, to whose ancestors they had been granted in feu or perpetu Isles. ity, for payment in kind of the old rents. And, lastly, Inhabited there are udal lands, or lands held without any written charters. This tenure occurs nowhere else in the Scottish territory, excepting in Orkney and Shetland, and in the four towns of Lochmaben, which we formerly mentioned. It would appear that the feudal system had never fully penetrated to these northern isles. At the same time, the udallers are few in number; some of them pay a small rent to the crown or church, and some pay to neither. A few of the larger, and many of the smaller proprie. tors occupy farms, but the far greater part of the lands is possessed by tenants. Those of the larger farms have generally leases for terms of seven, fourteen, or nineteen years; but by much the greater number of farms are possessed by tenants at will. The size of farms in tillage varies from two acres to two hundred. An average size may be about eight acres in cultivation to each farm. It would be a fruitless waste of the time of our readers to Islands. attempt to give a minute geographical description of each of these remote isles. The chief, as already noticed, is called the Mainland or Pomona. This island is in the centre of 1.Mainland, or Pomona, the group; and the remaining islands receive the appellation of north or south isles from their position with regard to it. The Mainland, from south-east to north-west, extends not less than thirty English miles, and displays considerable variety of appearance. A ridge of hills, of no great height, rises on its eastern extremity, and stretches westward, with some interruptions, to a considerable distance; after which it turns northward, nearly at right angles, so as to run parallel to the western boundary of the island, from which it is distant about six miles. Along the western boundary run the hills of Stromness and Sandwick. Through this extensive tract the hills are ge Isles. Inhabited nerally green on the sides, many parts of which are pro ductive when cultivated. The tops are covered with a mixture of heath and various sorts of grass, and afford a secure haunt for multitudes of moorfowl, as well as pasture for sheep, and black cattle and horses. The breadth of the Mainland is by no means considerable; for, though it reaches nearly sixteen miles on the west side, the east does not extend above five or six; and near the middle it is so narrow as to form a neck of land which comprehends little more than a mile in length, dividing the island into two peninsulas. The spacious and beautiful Bay of Scalpa bounds the one side of this isthmus, and the Bay of Kirkwall the other; and the ground that lies between them is at once so flat, so damp, and in other respects of such a nature, as to render it probable that the sea, some time or other, has occupied the whole space between them. To the eastward of the Bay of Kirkwall is the Bay of Inganess. Advancing from the north, it is so well sheltered from the west winds as to render it an extremely commodious retreat for shipping. Another bay to the eastward advances inland, and forms a large terri tory, or parish of Deerness, into a peninsula. This bay is also well calculated to afford a retreat for shipping. In this eastern part of the island the soil is in general thin, and the cultivated land lies in a declivity to the south. The houses of the peasantry, however, are neatly built, and their small gardens are usually in good order. In the western part of the Mainland is the great loch of Stennis, rising at the head of the Bay of Kerston, which proceeds from the south. The tide in some measure alternately fills and almost empties it. Its direction is towards the north-west to the extent of five miles. Trout, flounders, and other kinds of fish, are found in it. The village of Stromness is on the south-west quarter of the Mainland. Isles It would appear that deer have once inhabited this island, Inhabited as their horns have sometimes been dug up; and, both from tradition, and from the roots of trees and hazle nuts, which are frequently dug up, there seems reason to believe, that at some distant period it was not destitute of woods. 3. Hoy. Græmsay is one of the southern islands, about a mile 2. Gramand a half south-east from Stromness. It extends from say. east to west about a mile and a half, and about a mile in breadth. The whole is level, and the soil good; being either used for corn, or suffered to remain in old grass. In the interior parts a bed of slate supports the thin surface. Another inhabited island is Hoy, separated from Græmsy by a strait of a mile in breadth. It consists of the highest land in Orkney. Almost the whole of it is occupied by three large hills, in the form of a triangle, of which that to the north-east is the largest. Except along the north shores, which are bordered with a loamy soil and a rich verdure, the island has a soil composed of peat and clay, of which the former commonly predominates, black, wet, and spongy. This seems to arise from a greater quantity of rain falling here than in many other parts of the country. The island is chiefly appropriated to the pasture of sheep. On the hills are many alpine plants; and among them some delightful valleys, intersected with rivulets, whose banks are decked with flowers, and sheltered with shrubs, such as the birch, the hazel, and the currant, which are sometimes honoured with the name of trees, because in this particular situation they have risen ten or twelve feet above the ground that supports them. The Wart or Wardhill of Hoy rises to about a mile in height above the level of the sea. Westward from this hill is a stupendous rock, called the Old Man of Hoy. It rises about 1000 |