nor bridges are found in this desolate country. The horses are spirited and beautiful, but of so diminutive a size as to render them objects of curiosity in England.

The herring fishery constitutes a very remarkable branch of commerce, and exhibits a stupendous natural curiosity. The vast Arctic ocean, which appears to be only a dismal reservoir of boundless ice, is, by the wisdom of divine Providence, rendered an inexhaustible source of provisions for the human race. In its profound recesses the innumerable shoals of herrings breed their myriads in security. About the winter solstice, emerging from their unknown retreat, in a body surpassing description, and almost exceeding the powers of imagination, they separate into three divisions. The least nu merous body passing through the streight between Asia and America, visits the coast of Kamtschatka. Another, taking a more westerly direction, moves towards America, and spreads along the coasts of this continent as far as Carolina. But the grand column, advancing towards the western parts of Europe, reaches the coast of Iceland about the beginning of March, in a close phalanx of a great depth, and of sucn an extent, that its surface is supposed considerably to exceed the dimensions of the whole island of Great Britain. They are afterwards subdivided into innumerable columns of five or six miles in length, and almost as many in breadth, followed by innumerable flocks of sea fowl. The great Icelandic column sends off one division along the coast of Norway, which again subdivides itself into two; one passing through the Sound, into the Baltic, the other steering towards Holstein, Bremen, &c. The largest and deepest column falls directly upon the isles of Shetland and Orkney. After pas sing these, it divides itself into two bodies; one moving along the eastern shores of Great Britain, detaches smaller shoals to the coasts of Friezland, Holland, Flanders, and France; while the other, passing along the western side of Scotland, and visiting the Hebrides, directs its course into the seas that Surround Ireland. In April, or the beginning of May, the

van of the grand column makes its appearance off Shetland, and the main body arrives in June; towards the end of which month, and that of July, they are in the greatest perfection. The remains of this vast body, having completed their summer's tour, and employed, fed, and enriched immense numbers of people, are supposed to reassemble, and return to their Arcasylum, where their prolific powers soon enable them to repair their losses.

Ever since the year 1164, the inhabitants of the Netherlands have been engaged in the herring fishery; and, from the end of the fourteenth century, it has been to them an inexhaustible fund of wealth.

The

The population of the Shetland islands was, in 1798, computed at 20,186, which is as great a number as they can well support, unless manufactures were established, or the fisheries carried on in a more vigorous and commercial manner. people are in a state of great poverty. Provisions are very cheap, but money is very scarce. They have, however, two ample resources, in the fisheries, and the numberless flocks of sea fowl, in the catching of which they are very dexterous.

In the northern and western isles of Scotland, the condition of the people is nearly the same; but their manners are, in many respects, dissimilar: those of the Hebrides being of Celtic, those of the Orkneys and Shetlands chiefly of Scandinavian origin.

From what country these isles, supposed by some to be the Thule of the ancients, were first peopled is unknown. During the twelfth, and the greatest part of the thirteenth century, they were subject to the Norwegian kings; and, in the year 1263, they were sold to Alexander, king of Scotland. They were afterwards subject to Denmark. In the reign of James III. they were ceded to Scotland, by Christian I. as a portion with his daughter Margaret; and all future pretensions on the part of Denmark, ceased on the marriage of James VI. with the princess Anne, of that country.

Theoretical writers have formed, in their closets, a variety

of plans for the improvement of those desolate regions. The want of capital, the want of fuel, and a tempestuous and rainy climate, hostile to vegetation, are formidable obstacles to the introduction of manufactures, and the improvement of agriculture. The scarcity of fuel in many respects counterbalances the cheapness of living. It is not less interesting than curious, that most of these northern and western isles, which are now totally destitute of trees, and where none can, without extreme difficulty, be raised, afford evident indications that they once abounded in wood. Numerous roots and trunks of large trees, found in the morasses, are unequivocal proofs of the fact; and it must be left to the naturalist to account for this singular circumstance. The fisheries, which may be carried on with a much less capital than any considerable manufacturing enterprise, seem to be the only channel that nature has pointed out for the primary introduction of that wealth, which must serve as a basis to every further improvement.

GENERAL HISTORY.

The first authentic accounts that we have of the Scots is from the Romans. Of a country so remote, and never subject entirely to their dominion, they could not acquire any accurate knowledge. It appears, however, that Scotland was anciently inhabited by tribes of different origin. The Caledonians, supposed to have been a Celtic or perhaps Gothic colony, were, in all probability, the primitive inhabitants. The Picts seem to have been those Britons whom the Roman conquest drove northward; and the Scots were probably a Celtic colony, which first settled in Ireland, and afterwards passed over from that country, and formed establishments in Scotland. Caledonia, however, was the name by which the coun

try was known to the Romans, and Caledonians that by which they distinguished its people. When Agricola first carried the Roman arms into that country, he found it possessed by a fierce and warlike race, whom he defeated in that memorable battle, in which they made, under Galgacus their king, so glorious a stand against foreign invasion. The Caledonians, although repulsed, were not conquered: and the Romans, after being long harassed by their desultory inroads, at last constructed the famous wall between the firths of Forth and Clyde, and here fixed the boundaries of their empire, without attempting any farther extension of conquest. This distant frontier was found so difficult to defend, that Adrian contracted the limits of the Roman province, by building a second wall, which extended from Newcastle to Carlisle. The introduction of Christianity is said by some to have taken. place' about the beginning of the third century; by others as late as the sixth. The history of Scotland is, by Dr. Robertson, divided into four periods. The first of these reaches from the origin of the monarchy, to the reign of Kenneth II. king of the Scots, who, having vanquished the Picts about the year 838, united the two nations, and extended his dominion over all the country, from the wall of Adrian to the Northern ocean. The second comprises the space of time from that epoch to the demise of Alexander III. The third period extends from that time to the death of James V. The fourth dated its commencement at the death of James V. and terminated at the accession of James VI. to the throne of England, when the union of the two crowns was effected. We pass over the first of these periods, which is accounted fabulous and obscure, with a single remark.

While the Danes were ravaging England, they made similar attempts upon Scotland; but the Scots were more fortunate than the English; for while the Danes were erecting a monarchy in England, they were every where defeated in Scotland with great slaughter. Being masters of the sea, they harassed the country by successive invasions, and, in

conjunction with the Norwegians, conquered the Hebrides, and most of the isles, where they erected a number of petty sovereignties; but they could never make any permanent establishment in Scotland.

The memorable epoch of the Norman conquest of England, may be considered as the middle of what Dr. Robertson calls the second period of Scottish history. The feudal system is generally said to have been introduced into Scotland by Malcolm III. about A. D. 1090. Before this event it is thought that no written charters, or titles to lands, existed in that part of Britain. Previous to that period, possession alone ascertained the property of land, as it must every where have done in the infancy of society, and as it does at this day in the case of personal property. But the feudal law naturally introduced written deeds, for the ascertaining of rights, and of the conditions of tenures. Malcolm was succeeded by his brother Donald VII. who was dethroned by Duncan II. The crown afterwards devolved successively on Edgar, son of Malcolm III., Alexander I., and David I., who ascended the throne A. D. 1124. David shone both as a politician and a warrior ; and, under his government, Scotland was prosperous and powerful. He was liberal to ecclesiastics, and generous in his religious endowments. He displayed his magnificence in the erection of churches and monasteries; and the most splendid religious edifices in Scotland owe to him their foundation.

David was succeeded by his grandson Malcolm IV., and he by William, surnamed from his rash valour, the Lion. The unsuccessful courage of this monarch brought his kingdom into a state of humiliation. Having invaded England, he was made prisoner at Alnwick, in Northumberland, and conveyed into Normandy. In order to regain his liberty, he was obliged to do homage to Henry for the whole kingdom of Scotland, which, by this transaction, was made feudatory and dependent on England. According to Speed, he also agreed to pay 100,000/. for his ransom.

William the Lion had for his successor Alexander II., who