The nearest are the Orkneys, squat and prosperous, divided by the swollen tides of the Pentland Firth; then the Shetlands, long dark and narrow, poor and picturesque, bearing good sailors and small brown sheep; lastly far out to the north-west, the wild, abruptly rising, cloud-hung Faeroes (sic), breeding also sheep and sailors, as if in her extremity nature could rear only what was born with a good coat or a bold heart.”