with a sense of their great antiquity.  We walked along the top of the cliffs, which here presented the appearance of one vast amphitheatre lined with precipices, with small promontories here and there jutting out into the sea resembling fortresses, some of them having the ruins of ancient castles crowning their highest points.  We could scarcely bring our minds to realise that these were the very rocks we had seen from the deck of the s.s. St. Magnus only a few days since.  We had passed through so many scenes, and had had so many adventures both by night and day since then, that the lapse of time seemed to us to be more like years than days.  We retraced our steps to the head, and stood there for some time watching the ships far out at sea, trying to distinguish the St. Magnus, as it was just about the time she was again due on her outward journey; but the demands of our hungry insides were again claiming urgent attention, and so we hastened our return to the “Huna Inn.”  On our way we again encountered the shepherd who had shown us the site of John o’ Groat’s House, and we invited him to look us up in the evening, as we were anxious to get further information about John and his famous house.  “Huna Inn,” in spite of its disadvantages, was quite a romantic place to stay at, as it was situated almost on the edge of the boiling torrent of the Pentland Firth, which at times was so stormy that the island of Stroma could not be reached for weeks.

The “Swalchie,” or whirlpool of Stroma, has been mentioned by many ancient writers, but the most interesting story is that of its origin as given in the old Norse legend headed, “Fenja and Menja,” and containing a famous ballad known as the “Grotta Songr,” or the “Mill Song,” grotta being the Norse for mill, or quern.

Odin had a son by name Skjold from whom the Skjoldungs.  He had his throne and ruled in the lands that are now called Denmark but were then called Gotland.  Skjold had a son by name Fridleif, who ruled the lands after him.  Fridleif’s son was Frode.  He took the kingdom after his father, at the time when the Emperor Augustus established peace in all the earth, and Christ was born.  But Frode being the mightiest King in the Northlands, this peace was attributed to him by all who spake the Danish tongue and the Norsemen called it the Peace of Frode.  No man injured the other, even though he might meet, loose or in chains, his father’s or brother’s bane (murderer).  There was no thief or robber so that a gold ring would lie a long time on Jalanger’s heath.  King Frode sent messengers to Sirthjod, to the King whose name was Fjolner, and bought there two maidservants, whose names were Fenja and Menja.  They were large and strong.  About this time were found in Denmark two millstones so large that no one had the strength to turn them.  But the nature belonged to these millstones that they ground whatever was demanded of them by the miller.  The name of the mill was Grotte.  But the man to whom King