192 THE NATUEALIST IN NORWAY. 



eggs in the north. " The fowlers," says the bishop, 

 " either climb up those high and steep rocks, finding 

 here and there a resting-place for their feet, or else 

 they are let down from the top, a hundred fathoms or 

 more, that they may get into the hollow places under 

 the overhanging cliffs and caves made by nature/' 



When the fowlers climbed the rocks they were 

 assisted in their work by a long pole, twenty feet in 

 length, and which had an iron hook at the end ; the 

 men who were standing below fastened the iron hook 

 at the end of the pole in the waistband of the climber ; 

 they then gently pushed him up the rock, until he 

 came to some part of it in which he could place his 

 feet ; another man was then assisted up in like manner, 

 and the two men were able to help each other higher 

 up still. It generally happened, however, that one or 

 more fowlers perished every year in following their 

 dangerous but exciting occupation. 



Herr Peter Clausen, an ancient Norwegian divine, 

 who flourished in the early days of the Reformation, 

 and was a bitter enemy of Popery, states that a law 

 was then in vogue, that if a fowler were killed in 

 climbing the rocks, his nearest relation was obliged to 

 kill himself in a similar manner, and if he refused to 

 do so, the dead man was denied Christian burial. One 

 would suppose that few men would be willing to break 

 their necks for the melancholy satisfaction of knowing 

 that their deceased relations would be decently in- 

 terred. If any such absurd law existed, it was doubt- 

 less made for the purpose of teaching the fowlers 

 themselves to be careful how they risked their lives. 



When the rocks were so high that no one could 

 climb them, the fowlers were let down from above by 



