The town of Stromness is an irregular assemblage of dirty huts, with here and there a decent house. There is scarcely any thing deserving the name of a street in the place, although it is said to contain a population of two thousand souls. A few years ago it did not contain above one third of that number. The harbour is small, but very secure: it is defended from the sea by an island called The Holmes; and there is a good summer roadstead outside the island, called the Back of the Holmes. Firewood cannot be procured in the Orkneys, where there are no trees; but Newcastle coal is always remarkably cheap. About six miles from Stromness is a large lake, called Stonehouse Loch, in consequence of some high flat stones which stand by the side of it, something similar in appearance to Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain: they bear no inscription, and seem to have been set on their ends in the same state as when taken from the quarry[5]:—the view given of them in Barrie’s Description of the Orkney Islands is perfectly correct. The quantities of grouse, partridge, plover, snipe, &c. in the Orkneys, is astonishing: neither foxes nor hares are to be found; but rabbits are very numerous. There are some spots of good land in the valleys; but in such a bad state of cultivation, from idleness and want of manure, that at least five weeds are produced to one blade of corn. Wheat is not grown in any of the islands; the produce consisting, principally, in barley and oats. But the chief export of the Orkneys is kelp, ashes obtained by the burning of sea-weed[6], with which all the shores abound: this proves a most valuable acquisition to those gentlemen whose estates border on the sea; as it sells, on an average, at £.11 a ton; and is collected, at low water, without much difficulty. The kelp estates produce triennial harvests; and when this commodity is gathered, it is sent either to Newcastle, to Dumbarton, or to Leith; great quantities being required for the use of the glass-houses established in those towns. The number of tame geese reared in these islands is really surprising: they wander about the barren hills in flocks, like sheep; and the owners give themselves little or no trouble about them, until they are wanted for sale, or for their own consumption.
June 16th.—I accompanied some of the officers on a shooting party. This circumstance is merely mentioned to introduce a description of the farm-houses; as we visited many of them during our excursion. The delineation of one will answer for all: and surely there never was a scene better fitted for the pencil of a Morland! In one corner stood a calf; in another, a sheep and its lambkin; in the next, walled in with loose stones, a piece of sail-cloth served as a bed for the family; and the fourth corner, as also the sides and roof of the building, were garnished with decayed farming implements. The centre of the habitation was occupied by a turf fire, before which some oaten cakes were roasting; and, in the middle of the roof, a large square hole was cut, to allow the smoke to escape. By the side of the fire, in a large and remarkably high rush chair, sat an old woman, with a spinning-wheel before her, endeavouring to still the cries of a very dirty infant that lay in her lap. There was also another apartment to the hut, for the accommodation of the cows, of which they had a considerable number. The two rooms were not even divided by a door from each other, and the bare earth was the only flooring of either.
During this day we were still employed in getting water on board, although it is rather difficult to be procured.
June 17th.—Our carpenters were busily employed in affixing ring-bolts to the rudder; from which strong iron chains were brought in at the quarter ports of the ship, in order to secure the rudder against the shocks of the drift ice; as we were well aware that we should have to force our way through large quantities of it, in passing Hudson’s Straits: and we afterwards found this to have been a most necessary precaution. We likewise borrowed from the Hudson’s-Bay ships the necessary store of ice-anchors, ice-axes, and ice-poles; neither of those articles having been supplied by the Admiralty, probably from not knowing that they would be requisite.
June 18th.—During the whole of the time that we remained at Orkney after this day, we were busily employed in getting all kinds of necessaries on board.
June 29th.—We sailed from Orkney, at 8 A.M. with the two Hudson’s-Bay ships, and the Moravian Missionary brig, in company. Towards evening it blew a fresh breeze, and the wind veered round against us. At sunset we had a distant view of the Caithness Hills and the Isle of Shetland.
June 30th.—There being a very heavy sea, with rain at times, during this day, we did not perceive any alteration in the climate. The wind still proving foul, we continued to stand to the northward. In the evening, after some very violent squalls and heavy showers of rain, the wind suddenly veered to the N. W. and reduced us to close-reefed topsails, blowing very hard. During the night we stood to the S. W.
July 1st.—In the early part of the day the gale abated by degrees, and towards evening we had fine sunny weather. Wind still in the N. W. quarter; consequently we have made way to the S. W. since yesterday, about 67 miles. Latitude at noon this day, 59°. 10′. N.
July 2d.—In the morning, we saw the Lewis Islands; and the wind chopping round to S. W. we tacked, and stood off shore to the N. W. At noon, as the wind continued to blow steady in the S. S. W., we steered W. N. W. Many Solan geese flying about: these are nearly the size of a tame goose, but the neck much shorter, and the wings longer, tipped with black; all the rest of their plumage being perfectly white. At night-fall, the weather misty, but not cold.
On taking our last departure from the land this morning, it is necessary to observe, that, in my narrative of the voyage, I shall merely state, on each day, the course and distance run by the ship in the preceding day, without making a dull account of latitude, longitude, bearings and distances, allowances for lee-way, currents, &c. &c.; as all this farrago of nautical calculation, however necessary it may be to mariners, cannot fail to tire out the patience of a general reader; and the object of this publication, is not so much to point out the track of the Rosamond, in her voyage to Hudson’s Bay, as to describe the manners and customs of the different tribes inhabiting the shores of that immense gulf.