IN ST. KILDA. 469 



dispersed, the ocean was disclosed below, but at so great 

 a depth, that even the roaring of its surf, dashing with 

 fury against the rocks, and rushing with a noise like 

 thunder, into the caverns it had formed, was unheard 

 at this stupendous height. The brink was wet and 

 slippery, the rocks perpendicular from their summit 

 to their base; and yet, upon this treacherous surface, 

 the St. Kilda people approached, and sat upon the 

 extremest verge; the youngest of them even creeping 

 down a little way from the top, after eggs or birds, 

 building in the higher range, which they take in great 

 numbers, by means of a slender pole like a fishing-rod, 

 at the end of which was fixed a noose of cow-hair, stif- 

 fened at one end with the feather of a Solan Goose. 



But these pranks of the young are nothing when 

 compared to the fearful feats of the older and more 

 experienced practitioners. Several ropes of hide and 

 hair are first tied together to increase the depth of his 

 descent. One extremity of these ropes, so connected, 

 is of hide, and the end is fastened, like a girdle, round 

 his waist. The other extremity is then let down the 

 precipice, to a considerable depth, by the adventurer 

 himself, standing at the edge: \vhen, giving the middle 

 of the rope to a single man, he descends, always holding 

 by one part of the rope, as he lets himself down by the 

 other, and supported from falling only by the man above, 

 who has no part of the rope fastened to him, but holds- 

 it merely in his hands, and sometimes supports his com- 

 rade by one hand alone, looking at the same time over 

 the precipice, without any stay for his feet, and convers- 

 ing with the other, as he descends to a depth of nearly 

 four hundred feet. A bird-catcher, on finding himself 

 amongst the Fulmars' nests, took four, and with two in 

 each hand, contrived, nevertheless, to hold the rope as 

 he ascended ; and, striking his foot against the rock, 

 threw himself out from the face of the precipice, and 

 returning with a bound, would again fly out, capering 

 and shouting, and playing all sorts of tricks. Frightful 

 as such a display must be to those unaccustomed to it, 



