468 BIRD-CATCHING 



hide. Two of these are then twisted together; so that 

 the rope, when untwisted, is found to consist of two 

 parts, and each of these contains a length of sheep-skin, 

 covered with cow's hide. For the best they will ask 

 about thirteen pence a fathom, at which price they sell 

 them to each other. 



So valuable are these ropes, that one of them forms 

 the marriage portion of a St. Kilda girl; and to this 

 secluded people, to whom monied wealth is little known, 

 an article on which often life itself, and all its comforts, 

 more or less depend, is far beyond gold and jewels. 



The favourite resort for sea-fowl, particularly the oily 

 Fulmars, is a tremendous precipice, about thirteen hun- 

 dred feet high, formed by the abrupt termination of 

 Conachan, the most elevated hill in the island, and 

 supposed to be the loftiest precipitous face of rock 

 in Britain. 



How fearful 



And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low ! 

 The Crows and Choughs, that wing the midway air, 

 Show scarce so gross as beetles ; half-way down 

 Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade ! 

 Methinks he seems no bigger than his head : 

 The fishermen that walk upon the beach 

 Appear like mice ; and yon tall anchoring bark, 

 Diminished to her cock ; her cock, a buoy, 

 Almost too small for sight : the murmuring surge, 

 That on the unnumbered idle pebbles chafes, 

 Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more ; 

 Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight 

 Topple down headlong. 



Such is the beautiful description of Dover Cliff, by 

 Shakspeare; but what would he have said, could he 

 have looked down from this precipice in St. Kilda, 

 which is nearly three times higher, and so tremendous, 

 that one who was accustomed to regard such sights with 

 indifference, dared not venture to the edge of it alone ? 

 But, held by two of the islanders, he looked over into 

 what might be termed a world of rolling mists and 

 o ntending clouds. As these occasionally broke and 



