214 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



fathoms high. But there are men apt by na- 

 ture, and fit for the work, who take them usu- 

 ally in two manners ; they either climb from 

 below into these high promontories, that are 

 as steep as a wall ; or they let themselves 

 down with a rope from above. When they 

 climb from below, they have a pole five or six 

 ells long with an iron hook at the end, which 

 they that are below in the boat, or on the 

 cliff, fasten unto the man's girdle, helping 

 him up thus to the highest place where he 

 can get footing ; afterwards they also help up 

 another man ; and thus several climb up as 

 high as they possibly can; and, where they 

 find difficulty, they help each other up, by 

 thrusting one another up with their poles. 

 When the first hath taken footing, he draws 

 the other up to him, by the rope fastened to 

 his waist ; and so they proceed, till they come 

 to the place where the birds build. They 

 there go about as well as they can in those 

 dangerous places ; the one holding the rope 

 at one end, and fixing himself to the rock ; 

 the other going at the other end from place to 

 place. If it should happen that he chanceth 

 to fall, the other that stands firm keeps him 

 up, and helps him up again. But if he pass- 

 eth safe, he likewise fastens himself till the 

 other has passed the same dangerous place 

 also. Thus they go about the cliffs after birds 

 as they please. It often happeneth, however, 

 (the more is the pity) that when one doth not 

 stand fast enough, or is not sufficiently strong 

 to hold up the other in his fall, that they both 

 fall down, and are killed. In this manner 

 some do perish every year." 



Mr Peter Clanson, in his description of 

 Norway, writes, that there was anciently a 

 law in that country, that whosoever climbed 

 so on the cliffs that he fell down and died, if 

 the body was found before burial, his next 

 kinsman should go the same way ; but if he 

 durst not, or could not do it, the dead body 

 was not then to be buried in sanctified earth, 

 as the person was too full of temerity, and 

 his own destroyer. 



' When the fowlers are come, in the man- 

 ner aforesaid, to the birds within the cliffs, 

 where people seldom come, the birds are so 

 tame, that they take them with their hands ; 

 for they will not readily leave their young. 

 But when they are wild, they cast a net, with 

 which they are provided, over them, and en- 

 tangle them therein. In the meantime, there 

 lieth a boat beneath in the sea, wherein they 

 cast the birds killed ; and, in this manner, 

 they can in a short time fill a boat with fowl ! 

 When it is pretty fair weather, and there is ' 

 good fowling, the fowlers stay in the cliff se- 

 ven or eight days together ; for there are here 

 and there holes in the rocks, where they can 

 safely rest ; and they have meat let down to 



them with a line from the top of the moun- 

 tain. In the meantime some go every day to 

 them, to fetch home what they have taken. 



" Some rocks are so difficult, that they can 

 in no manner get unto them from below ; 

 wherefore they seek to come down thereunto 

 from above. For this purpose they have a 

 rope eighty or a hundred fathoms long, made 

 of hemp, and three fingers thick. The fowler 

 maketh the end of this fast about his waist, 

 and between his legs, so that he can sit there- 

 on ; and is thus let down, with the fowling- 

 staff in his hand. Six men hold by the rope, 

 and let him easily down, laying a large piece 

 of wood on the brink of the rock, upon which 

 the rope glideth , that it may not be worn to 

 pieces by the hard and rough edge of the 

 stone. They have, besides, another small 

 line, that is fastened to the fowler's body ; on 

 which he pulleth, to give them notice how 

 they should let down the great rope, either 

 lower or higher ; or to hold still, that he may 

 stay in the place whereunto he is come. Here 

 the man is in great danger, because of the 

 stones that are loosened from the cliff, by the 

 swinging of the rope, and he cannot avoid 

 them. To remedy this, in some measure, he 

 hath usually on his head a seaman's thick and 

 shaggy cap, which defends him from the 

 blows of the stones, if they be not too big ; and 

 then it costeth him his life ; nevertheless, they 

 continually put themselves in that danger, for 

 the wretched body's food sake, hoping in 

 God's mercy and protection, unto which the 

 greatest part of them do devoutly recommend 

 themselves when they go to work : otherwise, 

 they say, there is no other great danger in it, 

 except that it is a toilsome and artificial la- 

 bour ; for he that hath not learned to be so let 

 down, and is not used thereto, is turned about 

 with the rope, so that he soon groweth giddy, 

 and can do nothing ; but he that hath learned 

 the art, considers it as a sport, swings himself 

 on the rope, sets his feet against the rock, 

 casts himself some fathoms from thence, and 

 shoots himself to what place he will : he 

 knows where the birds are, he understands 

 how to sit on the line in the air, and how to 

 hold the fowling-staff in his hand; striking 

 therewith the birds that come or fly away : 

 and when there are holes in the rocks, and it 

 stretches itself out, making underneath as a 

 ceiling under which the birds are, he knoweth 

 how to shoot himself in among them, and 

 there take firm footing. There, when he is 

 in these holes, he maketh himself loose of 

 the rope, which he fastens to a crag of the 

 rock, that it may not slip from him to the 

 outside of the cliff. He then goes about in 

 the rock, taking the fowl either with his 

 hands or the fowling-staff. Thus, when he 

 hath killed as many birds as he thinks fit, he 



