7i6 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



the operation, clearing off all the eggs he can find. The 

 expedients a practised " dimmer " resorts to in negotiating 

 dangerous places and corners are very ingenious ; sometimes 

 he creeps along a ledge for some distance, and, to save the 

 trouble of returning by the same way, swings off again into 

 mid-air ; in order to get round a projecting corner he throws 

 the slack of the waist-rope round and then launches himself 

 off, so swinging to the spot he desires to reach. In some parts 

 of the cliff iron pegs are driven into the rock, round which 

 the " dimmer " winds the hand-rope to assist him in his work, 

 and at Jubilee corner, where the crag overhangs considerably, 

 three wire ropes are permanently fastened, by means of which 

 the inner shelves, otherwise inaccessible, are reached. I have 

 seen William Wilkinson, at a depth of more than two hundred 

 feet, stop and fasten the rope to a holdfast in the cliff side, 

 and from there lower himself to the recesses of a cave almost 

 within stone's throw of the beach ; indeed, the gymnastic 

 performances of an expert egg-gatherer are as clever as those 

 of many a first-class trapeze artist. A regular code of signals 

 is arranged, by which the man below can telegraph his wishes 

 to the top-man, thus : — a single tug at the waist-rope signifies 

 that the " dimmer " is ready to ascend ; the laconic command 

 " Up " is uttered, and all three of the top party, seated in a 

 row behind each other, their feet firmly planted in holes, 

 haul up their comrade from below. Two tugs mean " more 

 hand or guide rope wanted " ; three tugs, " less hand rope " ; 

 and these orders are executed accordingly ; but by long experi- 

 ence the men have become so much accustomed to each 

 other's ways that the lowerer seems to know intuitively 

 what his mate wants, and instinctively holds or lowers, 

 while the unsophisticated bystander naturally is lost in 

 wonderment at the facility with which he seems to anticipate 

 the other's wishes. When the " dimmer " gives the signal 

 to haul up he keeps kicking himself clear of the rock until he 

 reaches a part where he can ease the labours of his companions 

 by walking on the face of the cliff, reminding one of a fly on 

 a window pane, and on reaching the top he picks up the iron 

 stake at the edge, and so to the grassy flat where his spoils 



