inhabited houses, 220 vacant houses, and 10 houses building.

The Agricultural Returns for Great Britain for 1871 state the
number of occupiers of land in Shetland, from whom returns
have been obtained, at 3992, occupying on an average thirteen
acres each. The total acreage under all kinds of crops, bare,
fallow, and grass, is given as 50,454 acres in 1870, and 50,720 in
1871, of which, in the latter year, 11,626 acres were under corn
crops, 3,493 under green crops (2,909 being potatoes), 522 under
clover and grasses under rotation, and 33,227 permanent pasture,
meadow, or grass not broken up in rotation, exclusive of heath
or mountain land. The total number of horses returned to the
Statistical Department, as on 25th June 1871, was 5,354; of cattle
21,735; of sheep, 86,834; and of pigs, 5,251.
_________________

SOCIAL STATE.

The 'toons,' or townships, in which the peasantry of Shetland
live, are generally situated along the margins of the voes, or
far-stretching inland bays which intersect the country; and
although in some districts they extend into the valleys running into
the interior, they are almost always within a short distance from
the sea. It is natural, therefore, that the Shetlander should be a
fisherman or a sailor; and for two centuries it appears that he has
generally combined the occupations of farming and fishing. The
following description of the rural polity of Shetland, taken from
Dr. Arthur Edmonstone's View of the Ancient and Present State of
the Zetland Islands (2 vols. 8vo, Edin. 1809), is for the most part
applicable at the present day.