DESPERATE LEAP. 



time to catch the rope, as the fainting man fell senseless 

 at her feet. 



We shall add two more, equally hazardous, and one 

 fatal. Many bird-catchers go on these expeditions with- 

 out any companion to hold the rope or assist them. It 

 was on such a solitary excursion, that a man, having 

 fastened his rope to a stake on the top, let himself down 

 far below; and, in his ardour for collecting birds and 

 eggs, followed the course of a ledge, beneath a mass of 

 overhanging rock: unfortunately he had omitted to take 

 the usual precaution of tying the rope round his body, 

 but held it carelessly in his hand; when, in a luckless 

 moment, as he was busily engaged in pillaging a nest, it 

 slipped from his grasp, and after swinging backwards 

 and forwards three or four times, without coming within 

 reach, at last became stationary over the ledge of the 

 projecting rock, leaving the bird-catcher apparently 

 without a chance of escape, for to ascend the precipice 

 without a rope was impossible, and none were near to 

 hear his cries, or afford him help. What was to be done? 

 Death stared him in the face. After a few minutes' 

 pause, he made up his mind. By a desperate leap he 

 might regain the rope, but if he failed, and, at the dis- 

 tance at which it hung, the chances were against him, 

 his fate was certain, amidst the pointed crags ready to 

 receive him, over which the waves were dashing far, far 

 below. Collecting, therefore, all his strength, with out- 

 stretched arms, he sprang from the rock, and lived to 

 tell the tale for the rope was caught! 



The next occurred at St. Kilda, where, amongst other 

 modes of catching the sea-fowl, that of setting gins or 

 nooses is adopted. They are fixed in various places fre- 

 quented by the birds. In one of these, set upon a ledge, 

 a hundred and twenty feet above the sea, a bird-catcher 

 entangled his foot, and not being at the moment aware 

 of it, was, on moving onwards, tripped up, and precipi- 

 tated over the rock, where he hung suspended. He, too, 

 as in the preceding case, had no companion; and, to add 

 to his misfortune, darkness was at hand, leaving little 



