conceive it nearly as easy to pull up the trees of a forest. We are the more ready to believe that the Doctor may be in a mistake, since we find him elsewhere taking it for granted, that tangies may grow on the fishing-grounds,--where the sea is from thirty to sixty fithonis deep. One species, fucus filum, is occasionally found in ten or twelve fathoms water; but the tangle seldom in depths of as many feet.

The exports of Zetland are stated at 53,3197. 12s., and its imports at 43,920.; leaving a balance in favour of Zetland of 93997. 12s. Of the exports, the most considerable article is dried fish; of which 1000 tons, on an average, are annually sent to market.

We are next introduced to Lerwick, the Zetlandic capitalin which, we are told, there is no good inn; and the establishment of one is recommended. Meantime, strangers are at no great loss, either in town or country; for the savage virtue of hospitality' is universally prevalent. In the winter, dancing and card parties are frequent in Lerwick. Mr Brand, writing in the year 1700, regrets the want of a proper seminary for edu cation at Lerwick, many promising and pregnant ingenys being thus lost.' It is painful to find our author making the very same complaint, after the lapse of more than a century.

A copious account of the manners and character of the Zetland peasantry is next given. They are a robust and healthy race, -although there are no men-midwives among them!' This curious remark is introductory to a violent philippic against accoucheurs in general; and when we find it stated, in a murmuring tone, that midwivery is practised, not only by regular surgeons, but also by those who have studied surgery as an amusement,' we cannot help suspecting that the regular Doctor is somewhat jealous of the interference of those who, as they have studied for amusement, very probably practise without fees.

Christmas day, old style, called Yule-day, is held in great veneration by all the peasantry in Zetland. No individual will then engage in any kind of labour; and, if a drop of spirits can be obtained by any sacrifice, it must be had, to hail the morn of that happy day. Long before daylight, the fiddlers present themselves at the doors of the houses, playing a tune called the Daydawn, the interesting association of which thrills every soul with delight. This tune has long been consecrated to Yule-day, and is never played on any other occasion.' (II. 66.) We regret that the author has not favoured us with the notes of this tune, which is probably the remains of a Norwegian visick.

The unavoidable evils attending the impress service, are felt

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with peculiar severity by the Zetland peasantry, owing to the remoteness of their situation, and the consequent difficulty of obtaining redress. Every man in the country is more or less used to the sea. But men older than 55, and boys who never had attained 18 years of age, have been impressed; and, to have been even once at Greenland, is looked upon as a sufficient degree of experience to constitute a seaman.' (II. 340.) This is directly contrary to law: No man above 55, nor under 18, can be legally impressed; and two years must elapse, from the time of a man's first going to sea, before he is legally liable to the service. The poor men returning from the ice,' (i. e. the whale-fishery) are indiscriminately considered as fair game, and are hunted down with remorseless perseverance.' The consequences are of ten shocking; always disgusting and painful :

Some have perished in the rocks, in their attempts to escape from this dreaded severity; and others have had their health irrecoverably ruined, by watching and exposure during inclement weather. The panic is not confined to the young and the active: its sympathetic influence extends even to old men and boys; and the appearance of a boat resembling that in the impress service, is taken as the signal for a general flight. And not without reason: for often, while celebrating, with innocent and unsuspecting mirth, the wedding of some youthful pair, or engaged in the annual amusements of a winter night, the harmony of the scene has been rudely terminated by the sudden appearance of a pressgang, and their victims dragged, amidst tears and lamentations, to the general rendezvous. II. 68.

The people are very fuperftitious; and fome of their fancies are as unmeaning as any we ever heard of. Certain names must not be mentioned while they are fetting their lines-especially the minister, and the cat!' In the year 1700, the Reverend Mr Brand was much fcandalized at what he emphatically denounces as the hellish and tremendous devilry' of witchcraft. The peafantry ftill believe in its existence; and, no longer ago than 1804, a man entered a profecution, in the Sheriff court, against a woman for witchcraft.' The Sheriff-fubftitute allowed the cause to come into court, and endeavoured to expofe the fully of fuch proceedings.

As might be expected from an M. D. of the author's communicative difpofition, the chapter of difeafes is a formidable one. He commences with a claffification of all contagious maladies, beginning with fmallpox, and ending with cowpox. We rejoice to hear of the fuccefs of vaccination in Zetland, and of the contagion of the smallpox being there abfolutely extinguithed.' (II. 90.)

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mong the nervous diseases, epilepfy was formerly prevalent, and was often communicated, as if by fympathy, efpecially in churches, under the miniftratione of a powerful preacher. The miffionaries' (fent by we know not whom) have had the good fenfe to condemn all groaning and crying out during divine fervice, and have thus put a stop to the frequency of thefe fits. Such men, we must remark, can fcarcely be deferving of the fevere farcafms thrown out against them by the Doctor. (II. 62.) Confumptions, rheumatifms, and liver complaints, with feveral disgusting cutaneous affections, fwell the lift of Zetland difcafes. Croup is here much less fatal than in the fouth, not being accompanied with inflammatory fymptoms: as foon as the found in the cough refembling crowing, has been fairly established, all danger is looked upon to be at an end.' Low nervous fevers are frequent; and the prevalent inattention to cleanliness among the lower orders keeps the contagion ever alive. Although these people are all accustomed to failing on the fea from their infancy, yet fo little do they seem to value cleanliness, or to prize ablution in the limpid tides around them, that, we are affured, not one man in five hundred' ever learns to swim.

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The population of the islands, and their divifion into parishes, are next confidered. There are twenty-nine parishes, which form thirteen ministries only; fixteen of the old parishes being fuppreffed or annexed. In his sketch of these miniftries, the author never thinks of telling us how many fouls are in the cure; his only anxiety being to let us know the number of merks of rental land contained in each. Zetland, it appears, is overpeopled. its prefent ftate, it can barely furnish the means of fubfiftence to a population equal to two thirds of the actual amount. (II. 146.) In 1755, according to Dr Webfter, the population was 15,210; about 1792, according to Sir John Sinclair, it was 20,186; and in 1802, by the Government cenfus, it was 22,379. This increase is afcribed to the means which the landlords have used to promote early marriages, and to fix the dependant couple on their grounds. Since 1804, the population has been rather decreafing; and the Doctor quotes Mr Malthus with great accuracy on the evils of improvident fertility. It is curious to find the views of this enlightened philofopher anticipated near two centuries ago by the good fenfe of the Zetland governors. In what are called their country acts,' there was a fries of regulations for the prevention of imprudent marriages

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Or rather 1795; for several of the Zetland statistical reports were not published till 1796,

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the laft of which, dated in 1725, ordains, That none be allowed to marry, who has not forty pounds Scots of free gear to fet houfe upon, or fome lawful trade whereby to fubfift; nor fuch as cannot read, and is fomeway capable of demeaning himfelf < as a Chriftian mafter of a family; and that the forefaid society (that is, a fociety of ruftic cenfors called Rancelmen) require thereunto, and fuffer none otherwife to marry.

The divifion of whales and wrecks is a fubject of fome importance to thefe iflanders. Many fmall whales refembling grampufes are yearly embayed and killed. Thefe would, by the laws of Scotland, become the fole property of the captors, not being large whales,' or 'royal fish. But, by an agreement entered into in the year 1739, between the Earl of Morton, the donee of the Crown, and the heritors of Zetland, it was fettled, that the captors fhould thenceforth receive only a third part of the whales, and that the other two parts fhould be appropriated by the faid donee and heritors. The author declaims, and, we think, with fuccefs, against repreffing the industry of the people in killing the whales, by thus robbing them of a great part of the fruits of their labour: nor can we see very clearly what right the heritors had to enter into an agreement with Lord Morton, materially affecting the interefts of the captors-the whole merchants, fishermen, and peasants of Zetland. As to unknown wrecks, the High Admiral and the ground proprietor claim all the tenants content themfelves with what they can conveniently carry off and conceal,' (which we should reckon very near akin to stealing), together with their allowance for falvage; which latter not being always duly paid to them, has occafioned the practice of theft.'

The last subject treated of is the Natural History' of the islands. When we found it stated in the outset of this chapter, that, in a geological point of view, they are peculiarly interesting : and that many hundred undescribed marine insects are every day to be seen on their shores,' we naturally flattered ourselves with the hope of some very interesting communications: but our hopes were a little damped when we found that the author intended to

confine his observations chiefly to points less generally known, leaving to some future votary of the science the task of minute relation. '

The section entitled Botanical Observations,' accordingly, does not contain one botanical observation, unless the following precious morsel may be accounted such- Among the mosses, there occur a few rather novel species of cryptogamia; and I have seen what I took to be one or two species of indigenous grasses growing along the sea-side.' (II. 187.)-The former part of this

sentence

sentence is utterly unintelligible: and as to the latter, the Doctor need not use the language of hesitation; for we are verily convinced that every sheep and shelty in the country has not only seen, but tasted, several species of indigenous grasses growing along the sea-side.

The botanical is followed by a geological section; the descriptive part of which, being borrowed implicitly from Professor Jameson's Outlines of the Mineralogy of the Shetland Islands, is of a very respectable character. Some remarks are subjoined, which are evidently the author's own. 1st, He tells us, that coal has never yet been discovered, although, from the nature of the rocks so generally prevalent, its existence may be infer.. red.' The rocks generally prevalent are, according to his own account, granite, gneiss, micaceous shistus, and serpentine, with some indurated and dark-red sandstone, and beds of primary limestone; all of which, we should think, are most inimical to the inference of finding coal. Veins of greenstone and basalt' are mentioned as occurring only in one island; and we do not hear at all of the occurrence of argillaceous shistus with vegetable impressions, of clay-ironstone, or limestone with petrifactions,-one or other of which generally abounds in coaldistricts. 2dly, He remarks, that from this sketch there appears [appear] to be examples in Zetland of three of the Wernerian formations of rocks only; the primitive, secondary, and alluvial.' This piece of learning is rather unlucky; as these three great divisions are not formations, but classes; each class including several formations. The Wernerians admit no secondary class of rocks; they divide rocks into Primitive, Transition, Floetz, and Alluvial; and floetz is by no means synonymous with secondary. 3dly, He affirms, that the rocks every where furnish satisfactory illustrations of the Neptunian system.' But he does not specify one of these satisfactory illustrations, though no topic is at present more keenly discussed than the aqueous or igneous origin of the rocky crust of our globe. The Vulcanists must smile, therefore, at the Doctor's innocent hostility; and it is not unlikely that the Neptunists may disclaim the aid of his unproved assertions.

Under the head of Zoological observations,' Quadrupeds, Birds, Amphibia, Fishes, and Insects, are treated of in due order; and with all the useless and absurd precision of the Linnean nomenclature. If he was resolved to be rigorously systematical, he should have begun with Bipeds; and have displayed, in technical phraseology, the peculiar characters of the Homo sapiens of the Zetland islands. He commences, however, with the Equus Caballus

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