ORKNEY ISLANDS, a group of 90 Scotch islands, islets, and skerries, of which only 28 are inhabited, and which have an aggregate area of 376 square miles, the largest being Pomona or Main land (207 square miles), Hoy (53), San day (26), Westray, South Ronaldshay, Rousay, Stronsay, Eday, Shapinshay, Burray, Flotta, etc. They extend 50 miles N. E., and are separated from Caithness by the Pentland Firth, miles wide at the narrowest. With the exception of Hoy, which has fine cliffs, and in the Ward Hill attains 1,564 feet, the scenery is generally :tame, the sur face low and treeless, with many fresh water lochs, and the soil shallow, incum bent on peat or moss. The mean an nual temperature is 45°, the rainfall 31.3 inches. The area under cultivation has more than doubled since 1850, but is still less than one-half of the total area. The live stock during the same period has trebled; agriculture and fishing are the principal industries. The Orkneys
(Ptolemy's Orcades) were gradually wrested by Norse rovers from their Pic tish inhabitants. They continued sub ject to the Scandinavian crown—till 1231, and afterward under the Earls of Angus and Stratherne and the Sinclairs —till in 1468 they were given to James III. of Scotland as a security for the dowry of his wife, Margaret of Denmark. The present landed proprietors are chiefly of Scotch descent, the islanders generally of mixed Scandinavian and Scotch origin. Pop. (1918) estimated, 23,100. In the World War (1914 1918) the British Grand Fleet made Scapa Flow in the Orkneys its base for naval operations. Here the surrendered German war-ships were interned and subsequently stink by order of the Ger man Naval Command.