Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/137

 Hill (as Dr. Jakobsen prefers to spell it) in skut, or the Pobies dippin', was by no means among the “crabs and drooielines,” but signified a distance of thirty miles from the shore.

The fishermen were very particular to set their lines in a given straight course, indicated by meiths or marks on the land. This was chiefly to enable them the more readily to find the lines in the event of making up (breaking), and it was further considered that certain kinds of bottom kept fish more readily than others, and these patches of ground were known by names, sometimes that of the discoverer, as Maan's Raith, Tammas' Grund, Tirvil's Seat, etc.; but frequently they were distinguished by names having reference to their landmarks, as the Heug an' da Rimble, the Nippin Grund, the Vords, Hagmark an' da Röcok, etc. The fishing grounds nearest the land were called klaks, where handline fishing was practised, and were marked by cross meiths, so as to find