Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/82

62 have done, I know not. Suffice it, that the fact wars against the French encyclopædists, and others, who have asserted this island to remain desert and uninhabited—'à cause de la quantité extraordinaire de serpens qui s'y trouvent;' and where, then, are we to look for the Ophiusa of the ancients, but in the Columbretes?

 

5th January, 1829.—The partial clearing of the fog brought to view the desolate lands of Shetland. The first that was descried was the mountainous island, the westernmost of the group, called, after its discoverer, Smith's Island; and a more dreary aspect of rugged barrenness I never beheld. It rises abruptly from the water's edge, and in the centre towers to the height of between