BIRD- CA TCHING. 409 



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of Albatrosses, hovering like a cloud — some continually alight- 

 ing and meeting their companions, while others are as continu- 

 ally rising and shaping their course towards the sea. 



Many of the birds of the two latter tribes, either from their 

 feathers, skins, oil, or eggs, are considered, as it were, the 

 standard harvest of the poor people, who, like them, are 

 destined to abide amidst the wild and lonely islands of the 

 ocean : it is, therefore, natural to suppose that no means are 

 neglected, no ingenuity left untried, in providing, whether for 

 rent, clothing, food, or the lamplight of their long and dreary 

 winter's nights, by laying in a store of each of these important 

 articles, for which they are indebted to their companions, the 

 sea-birds. And as the risks and difficulties which they 

 encounter, and overcome, form leading features in their lives, 

 we shall close our account with a few of the hazardous and 

 interesting details connected with the reaping of this their 

 fearful harvest. 



It is chiefly on the most rugged shores of Scotland, or on 

 the more rugged rocks of the several adjacent islands, or still 

 farther to the north, in the Shetland or Faroe Islands, that 

 this " dreadful trade " is carried on in the perfection of its 

 horrors; though in some parts of Wales — as, for instance, 

 near the South Stack above mentioned — and the Needle Rocks 

 off the Isle of Wight, adventurous climbers will occasionally 

 exhibit feats of perilous achievement quite sufficient to satisfy 

 most beholders. In some parts of the coast, immense mounds 

 or fragments of rocks have been cut off from the mainland by 

 terrible convulsions of nature, or the incessant wearing of 

 waves through fissures and narrow channels for successive 

 ages. On a few of these spots, sea-birds, for a time, rested 

 securely, till some bold adventurers devised the means of 

 invading their territories, crossing the space by means of 

 cradles, suspended on ropes thrown across. 



At Carrick-a-Reade, near the Giant's Causeway, in Ireland, 

 and in the Shetland Islands, two of these airy conveyances are 

 still in use ; and, until a suspension-bridge was erected some 

 years ago, a third, and tolerably commodious and safe one, 



