4?0 BIRD-CATCHING. 



accidents are extremely rare ; and the St. Kildians seem 

 to think the possibility of a fatal termination to these 

 exploits almost out of the question. 



It is, indeed, astonishing to what a degree habit and 

 practice, with steady nerves, may remove danger. From 

 the island of the South Stack above mentioned, boys 

 may be seen frequently scrambling by themselves, or 

 held on by an urchin or two of their own age, letting 

 themselves down the picturesque precipice opposite the 

 island, by a piece of rope, so slender and apparently 

 rotten, that the wonder is why it does not snap at the 

 first strain. Yet, without a particle of fear, heedless of 

 consequences, they will swing themselves to a ledge 

 barely wide enough to admit the foot of a goat, and 

 thence pick their way with or without the rope, to pillage 

 the nest of a Gull, which, if aware of its own powers, 

 might flap them headlong to the bottom. 



Here, too, as in St. Kilda, accidents are said to be of 

 rare occurrence, though of course, they do occasionally 

 happen; but escapes sufficiently appalling to make the 

 blood run cold to hear of, are common enough. 



The first we shall mention, happened about two miles 

 from the South Stack, on the rocky coast of Rhoscolin. 

 A lady, living near the spot, sent a boy in search of sam- 

 phire with a trusty servant, to hold the rope at the top. 

 While the boy was dangling midway between sky and 

 water, the servant, who was unused to his situation, 

 whether owing to a sudden dizziness from looking down- 

 ward on the boy's motions, or misgivings as to his own 

 powers of holding him up, felt a cold, sickly shivering, 

 creep over him, accompanied with a certainty that he 

 was about to faint; the inevitable consequence of which, 

 lie had sense enough left to know, would be the certain 

 death of the boy, and, in all probability, of himself, as in 

 the act of fainting, it was most likely he would fall 

 forward, and follow the rope and boy down the preci- 

 pice. In this dilemma, he uttered a loud despairing 

 scream, which was fortunately heard by a woman work- 

 ing in an adjoining field, who, running up, was just in 



