354 LETTER LI. 



attendant dangers. The descent and friction of the 

 rope often causes the loose stones to tumble down on 

 every side. To defend himself against them the fowler 

 covers his head with a kind of helmet or some other 

 safeguard; but many are notwithstanding killed by 

 this kind of accident. Those who are unskilled in or 

 unaccustomed to this business are very often seized 

 with a giddiness on seeing themselves suspended from 

 these tremendous heights; but the skilful practitioner 

 swings himself about with amazing dexterity, directs 

 his attack to that part of the rock which seems to pro- 

 mise the greatest success, strikes with his fowling-stafT 

 the game as it comes out of the holes, occasionally 

 disengages himself from the rope by which he was 

 suspended, roams through the cavities of the rocks, 

 and, when he has procured a sufficient booty, gives 

 the signal to his companions, and is again drawn up ; 

 when a good supper of the coarse flesh of the sea-gull 

 compensates to these poor and hardy adventurers the 

 clangers and: fatigues of the day. 



I have given you, my dear sir, this account of the 

 manner of taking these birds in the northern and wes- 

 tern islands, as an interesting exhibition of a grand 

 and awful scene. I have in some of my preceding 

 letters given you an account of the hunting of the 

 elephant ami the lion, the chamois-, the wild boar, and 

 many other animals of .which the- chace requires dex- 

 terity, and is attended with danger: the manner of 

 taking sea-fowl here described, however, is beyond 

 comparison more dangerous, and demands far greater 

 resolution and activity. Although the exertions of 

 men in a state of poverty and obscurity pass unno- 

 ticed, these fowling enterprises of the northern pea- 

 sants would perhaps have tried the resolution of some 

 of the heroes of history. 



We have now, my dear Sir, taken a cursory view 

 ff a numerous class of aquatic birds, and in this slight 

 glance you cannot but have observed the exact con- 

 formity between their construction and their destina- 

 tion, which every where strikes the eye, and pro- 

 claims the wisdom ef Him who has so admirably t*i- 



