A gentleman informed us that "he has been for five days becalmed in a sloop between Fitful-Head and Sumburgh-Head, which are only distant from each other about three miles, without being able to pass either point; one current carrying the vessel into the eastern, and the other into the western ocean: the sloop was often transported by the tide very near the shore, yet another tide always carried her off again.Here there is always a heavy sea, but in a storm the waves are said to rise mountains high."

The following sketch applies, it is probable, to the residence of Norna, the seller of the winds. "In descending the heights of Fitful towards Quendal Bay, I crossed the small ridge of Garthness.-Close to the sea there was a piece of ground approaching to a semi-circular form, and naturally protected on the west by high banks, on the south by the ocean, and strengthened in other places by artificial embankments of earth. This fortification was probably the hasty workmanship of the marauding parties of Highlanders, who are said to have visited Shetland for a long series of years, and to have secured for themselves, within temporary strongholds, their booty of corn and cattle, until a sufficient freight of plunder was collected, with which they might sail away to the Western Isles."

AS TRIPTOLEMUS, (the agriculturist,) expresses much indignation against the bigoted attachment of the Shetlanders to their old-fashioned ploughs and mills, we quote from Hibbert a brief description of each. Of the former, he remarks that this implement of husbandry is of very ancient construction, being single-stilted, like one that is represented by Olaus Magnus, as common to northern nations. A crooked piece of wood, bent to a right angle, forms the beam of the plough, which has a length of six feet, and a height of two feet and a half: the single stilt at the top of it consists of an oak stave, seven feet long. A slender machine of this sort, which one man may lift with ease, is drawn by four oxen abreast. The draught, or chain, with which their necks are connected to the plough is from 18 to 24 feet long. With this strange instrument two labourers take the field; the holder of the plough stands on the left of the pliable stilt; the driver, or culler as he is named, goes before the oxen, walking backward; the sound of his whip sets the cattle in motion; the holder of the stilt lies on with his side; the earth is turned over; the work is executed to admiration, until a large stone encounters the coulter, and then crack go the joints of the frame-work. All hands are now pressed into service for repairs," &c.

The construction of the mill surpasses our understanding,

and could not be rendered intelligible to our readers. Suffice it to relate, that Captain Preston, the author of an old nautical chart of Shetland, was, during his detention there by the wreck of his ship, conducted to see a Shetland mill; being informed at the same time that the machine in question had been for many years a subject of dispute between two landed proprietors. The Englishman looked at his conductor with surprize, and significantly eyeing the object of contention, replied with a sneer, "I can certainly conceive of no dispute which such a structure ought to have reasonably occasioned-but whether it be a mill or not."

The reader will no longer be surprised at the impatience of Triptolemus when amidst such a gross mockery of agricultural processes. Things are now fast changing for the better; and although the spirit of Magnus Troil continues to actuate too many of his countrymen, the Yellowley family are regularly gaining ground on the representatives of the bold openhearted Udaller, and will in a short time extend their innovations even to the outfields and crofts of Burgh Westra-itself.

Our readers will perceive that our object in this article has been twofold. In the first place, we meant to add one instance more to the many already adduced by other critics, to establish against the author of the Scottish novels the charge of violating historical truth in his tales; and of mixing his fictions and his facts together so freely, and without any warning, as to confound all our notions of the events to which his stories bear even the remotest reference. Our second purpose was a more generous one; it was to shew, by quoting from unquestionable authorities, that the views given in the "Pirate" of customs, manners, habits, and opinions, are true pictures of the character of the men, and of the general state of society in Shetland, at a period even more recent than that to which the fictitions narrative carries back the examination of the reader. The merit of the "Pirate" is therefore to be estimated chiefly on the ground now stated--an exhibition of local and peculiar manners now about to become extinct and estimated on this ground, the best judges, we venture to assert, will pronounce the most favourable opinion.

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