The very names of the islands indicate their nature, for the terminal a or ay is the Norse ey, meaning "island," which is scarcely disguised even in the words Pomona and Hoy.
Local moraines are found in some of the valleys in Pomona and Hoy.
Shorthorns and polled Angus are the commonest breeds of cattle; the sheep are mostly Cheviots and a Cheviot-Leicester cross, but the native sheep are still reared in considerable numbers in Hoy and South Ronaldshay; pigs are also kept on several of the islands, and the horses - as a rule hardy, active and small, though larger than the famous Shetland ponies - are very numerous, but mainly employed in connexion with agricultural work.
Hoy (q.v.; 1216) is the southernmost of the larger islands.
Flotta (372), east of Hoy, was the home for a long time of the Scandinavian compiler of the Codex Flotticensis, which furnished Thorrnodr Torfaeus (1636-1719), the Icelandic antiquary, with many of the facts for his History of Norway, more particularly with reference to the Norse occupation of Orkney.