390 ALCA TROILE. 
here was for one man to sit on the edge of the rock hauling the climber 
up and down as might be required. The other end of the rope 
was fastened to the body of the man at the edge, and a third man 
held it at a convenient distance behind him, so as to secure him 
from overbalancing, while a fourth was sometimes useful to take in 
the slack of the rope. When I was climbing, which I did mostly 
the first day, and entirely the second, to the exclusion of anyone 
else, I had a basket which I filled, and it was generally hauled up by 
Mr. Edge with string. 
There was a urinous kind of smell down the rocks. The ledges 
were coated with a slimy covering of white dung on which lay the 
eggs without any regular arrangement. This dung was dry in 
places. Sitting on their eggs the birds were down on their breast. 
In seating themselves they put the egg under their chin, and so 
kept it under their abdomen, or rolled it under, to prevent it 
slipping away. They sat on their egg transversely, that is with the 
long axis of the egg at right angles to the long axis of the body, and 
as they-sat their heads pointed mostly seaward. They were to be 
seen on the ledges in coitu. I do not remember’ catching any 
Guillemots alive; but they let me get to within a foot or two of 
them. The eggs were mostly somewhat advanced in incubation, 
while the Razorbills’ were more fresh ; but in one place that I went 
down the Guillemots’ were more recent, as they had already been 
robbed once. They were generally much stained by the dung. 
I got several severe bites from ticks of large size. I climbed 
generally without shoes. The old man who held the rope was 
pleased to say he had never felt anyone so light upon the hand. 
This was because I took care to be as little dependent upon him as 
possible, climbing wherever I could stick in my toes and fingers, 
The geological structure of the island, the horizontal narrow strata 
of sandstone, is remarkably favourable for the birds and for the 
fowler. It is an interesting fact that down the face of the rocks, 
though exposed to the full force of the west wind, it was nearly calm 
during a storm of wind. I was quite warm, while my companions 
could scarcely hold the ropes from cold. The barometer ought to 
be high from the increased pressure on the superficial layer of air. 
A new precaution in climbing was here forced upon my notice, 
for I nearly got my neck broken by my head hitching under a ledge 
as they were hauling me up. Luckily they heard my invectives. 
1 [This account was not written out till some months after the visit.—EDb. ] 
