323 



LETTER t.l. 



riety of species would indeed be tiresome. They 

 have most of them a fishy taste, and their flesh is 

 coarse and unpalatable. 'The poor inhabitants of our 

 northern islands, however, esteem it a banquet, and 

 indeed it may well be thought excellent by those who 

 seldom taste any better. The gull, the petrel, -the 

 tern, and indeed most birds of this genus have nearly 

 the same nature and habits, frequent the same place, 

 and are caught in the same manner, and by risking 

 the same dangers. 



In order, my dear Sir, to add to the multitude of 

 examples of the connection of animal life with human 

 economy, which the history of nature on every side 

 presents to our view; and to impress on your mind 

 Ha idea of a most dangerous and adventurous scene 

 with which you are unacquainted, and of which, with- 

 out an exact account you could not form any concep- 

 tion, I shall amuse yon, a few moments with a de- 

 scription of the sport of catching sea-fowl and taking 

 their eggs on the stupendous rocks which in some 

 places are found on the northern coasts of this island 

 and appear as a bulwark to oppose the assaults of the 

 ocean. To these s.hpres the gull, the petrel, and in- 

 numerable other sea-fowl resort, and breed in the ca- 

 vities of these* rocky cliffs. Of the tremendous subli- 

 mity of those immense elevations it is not easy to form 

 an idea. The stupendous works of art, the highest 

 towers, the noblest domes, are mere ant-hills when 

 put in the scale of comparison, and a single cavity in 

 one of those rocks often exhibits a canopy more lofty 

 than the ceilirig of a Gothic cathedral. What would 

 you think, my dear Sir, were you placed on the rock 

 of St. Kiltfa, elevated above three quarters of a miie, 

 er more than fourteen times the height of St. Paul's 

 fa- liedral above the surface of the sea, and overhang- 

 ing it in a most terrific manner? With what awe 

 would you approach that impending height and look 

 clown on the immense abyss below? The waves that 

 swell like mountains in an ocean three thousand miles 

 wide are scarcely seen to curl on the ,.irface, and 

 thsic tremendous roar can scarcely be heard from that 



