by which the quantity of the grain or malt payable by Weights. them was ascertained, and declared their willingness to pay what they were bound to do, provided no more was exacted than would have been, had the weights been of the same standard as when the islands were ceded to the crown of Scotland. They contended, and with truth, that the laws, language, manners, customs, and particularly the weights, were derived from Norway; and that if a standard of them were anywhere to be found, it was most likely to be in that country. To ascertain the truth as to this point, application was made, through the British consul, to the burgomaster at Bergen, superintendant in chief of the police, and conservator of the standards of the weights and measures of that kingdom, who transmitted a certificate containing the most ample and satisfactory information. In this paper he assures them, that from the earliest times the mark, which had always been considered as the radical weight, contained exactly eight ounces, or half a pound; the setteen, consisting of twenty-four marks, twelve pounds; and the meil, of consequence, seventy-two pounds. Having gained this intelligence, which they considered justly as of importance, they imagined themselves entitled to infer, that the weights in Orkney were the same as in Norway at the time the islands ceased to be dependent on that country. They had evidence, or supposed they had, that the origin of the increase could be traced to the avaricious and oppressive spirit of Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney; that these weights had received a further augmentation during the despotic reign of his son Patrick; that the farmers of the crown rents, subsequent to the time of these earls, had discovered little inclination to relinquish their interest, so far as to restore matters to their ancient state; and that they had increased considerably even since the Morton

Weights family had come into possession. To the extravagant height to which they had arrived, they ascribed the state of the islands at that period, which they represented as poor, in comparison of what they had been in former times; that, for want of the means of industry, trade was in a languishing state, fisheries were almost entirely neglected, and agriculture was nearly in the same condition. Many estates, on which large families had lived with comfort, were now fallen into the hands of the superior; the proprietors were not above one-third of the number they were eighty or ninety years before; and even the general population was greatly diminished.

This dispute took place little more than half a century ago. The Earl of Morton insisted, in opposition to the above arguments, that these islands, when let in farm, which they had been for a number of years, yielded a greater rent to the crown than at that time arose out of them to the Earl; and that, in particular, the rental of 1600 exceeded what was then the present one by 11,000 merks, converting both into money at the same price, which certainly could not have been the case, on the supposition of augmented weights. To this they added, that when the islands were ceded to Scotland, they had become the patrimony of the crown, and had been feued out at the full rental; and therefore the present proprietors had no just cause to complain, since their feu-duties were the effects of nothing else but these tenures, which they had derived from their ancestors. He urged still farther, that standards or models of the weights had been kept, beyond the memory of man, by the magistrates of Kirkwall, that no complaints had been made of their increase since the union, when the grant was made in the Earl's favour; that the weights used by the Earl's servants were the same with those made use of over all the

islands, and no heavier than those by which the land- Planta lords themselves received their rents in kind from their te nants; and that though it were admitted that they had increased formerly, prescription could now be pleaded in their favour,

The plea of prescription gained the cause, in the courts of law, in favour of the Earl of Morton; but the disgust produced by this and other disputes induced that family to sell their rights over these islanders to the father of the present Lord Dundas.

The plants found in these islands, considered in a bo- Plants, tanical point of view, are nearly the same with those found in other parts of Scotland; nor are the productions of the gardens materially different. In the flower garden, the rose, the tulip, the carnation, the pink, the primrose, with a multitude of other flowers, are cultivated with success; while the kitchen garden produces cabbage, broccoli, cauliflowers, peas, beans, spinage, onions, leeks, parsley, cresses, beets, lettuces, turnips, carrots, parsnips, celery, and artichokes; all of which are good of their kind, but particularly the last is of unrivalled excellence. The fruit garden, though it produces in abundance excellent black, white, and red currants, is very inferior in the apples, pears, plums, cherries, gooseberries, and strawberries that it produces, with respect both to size and fla

your.

Though no trees, excepting under the shelter of a gar- Trees anden wall, and a few in Hoy, as already mentioned, exist here. in this country, it is certain that they were once here found in abundance. There is a general and strong tradition, that the harbour of Otterswick in Sanday was once a forest, which was destroyed by an inundation. In support of which tradition it may be observed, that roots, or at least parts of trees, much putrefied, half buried in the

Animals sand, and covered with sea-weed, present themselves to view at the low water of spring tides. Deerness is also reported to have been anciently a considerable forest, which a deluge overwhelmed, after it had long been the haunt of deers and other wild animals. But though no such tradition had ever existed, or been supported by such authority, the number of trees that have in many places been occasionally dug up in the peat mosses, from the thickness of a man's leg to that of his body, furnish sufficient evidence of their having been once pretty general in these islands. So far as history throws any light upon the subject, the woods must have been destroyed in very early antiquity; as the Norwegian historian Torfæus represents Einar, Earl of Orkney, who lived early in the tenth century, as instructing his people in the use of turf or peat as fuel, from the want of which they were under great distress, in consequence of the failure of their forests. This invention of peat fires, or the imparting of the knowledge of it to these islanders, gained for Einar a great name, and he is highly extolled on account of it by the scalds or bards of the north. He was ever afterwards honoured with the name of Torfeed or Torfinar.

Animals.

Fish.

The following is a statement of the animals found in these islands, with their ordinary and provincial names:

The lobster, crab, cockle, razor (called in Orkney the spout-fish), oyster, saurey (in Orkney, gar-fish), grey garnard, diagenet, herring, argentine, grey ling, char, parr, trout, bull trout, salmon, mackerel, fifteen-spined stickleback (bismer), three-spined stickleback (bausticle), urasse (bergie), turbot, sole, flounder, plaise, holibut (turbot), ossali or king's fish, father-lasher (comper), black giby (black rockfishic), spotted giby, viviparous blenny (green bone), spotted blenny (swerdick), purple blenny, tersk (tusker cat-fish), whistle-fish (red ware fishic), ling,

whiting, pollack (lyth or ly-fish), coal-fish (selloc cu- Animals. thorseth), haddock, cod-fish, launce (sand-eel), wolf-fish (swine-fish), conger, common eel, little pipe-fish, shorter pipe-fish, longer pipe-fish, sea-snail, lump-fish (paddle), sturgeon, lesser dog-fish (daw-fish), white shark, basking shark (hocmether or hamer), piked dog-fish (hoc), thorn-back, sharp-nosed ray (skate), skate, grampus, porpoise, high-finned cachelot, round-headed cachelot, great-headed cachelot (spermaceti whale), beaked whale (bottle-nose), round-lipped whale, common whale.

Lobsters and crabs are found in great abundance around the rocky shores of Orkney. The cockle is in great esteem, and forms an article of food. These islands being in the tract of the great northern shoal, the herrings, in July and August, enter every bay and creek, and usually depart unmolested, from want of capital, on the part of the natives, to engage in the fishery. The coal, cod-fish, and haddock, are the most common on all the coasts, and next to these the ling, but they are all much neglected. The coal-fish, towards winter, rush into most of the bays, and are caught in myriads for their livers, which furnish oil for the lamps; and their flesh constitutes a valuable article of food to the poor people. The cod is now caught by smacks stationed in the Pentland Frith, as formerly stated under the article Caithness. The skate is found from one to five feet in diameter. The grampus is seen in great numbers in most of these coasts, and very often, in strong and impetuous currents, frisking and tumbling about in a strange and amusing manner. Their size is from fifteen to twenty or even twenty-five feet in length; and they are very thick in proportion. Their appetite is so voracious and their nature so fierce, that they do not hesitate to attack the largest fishes; which is probably the reason that so many whales are embayed, driven ashore, and destroy