DANGER IX TAKING EAGLETS. 267 



their habitation ; yet with the assistance of a short 

 slender rope made of twisted hogs' bristles, did the well 

 known adventurous climber or rockman Woolley Tom- 

 son traverse the face of this frightful precipice, and for 

 a trifling remuneration brought up the young birds. 



" After a fatiguing scramble up the sides of the 

 mountains, we arrived at the place from whence we 

 could see the eyrie beneath ; the distance was so great 

 that the young eagles appeared no bigger tha.n pigeons. 

 After placing us in a secure situation on a projecting 

 ledge of the rock, that commanded a view of the scene 

 of action, Tomson left us, can-ying his rope in his hand, 

 and disappeared for upwards of half an hour ; when, to 

 our great joy, we discovered him creeping on his hands 

 and knees up the spiry fragment, on which lay the un- 

 fledged eaglets : when, knowing he was then in our sight, 

 he knelt on the top, and looking towards us, waved his 

 hat. At this time it was impossible to see the situation 

 he was in without trembling for his safety ; the slender 

 point of the rock on which he knelt was at least 100 

 feet above the surges of the Atlantic, which with un- 

 broken violence were foaming beneath him. Yet he 

 deliberately took from his pocket a cord, and tying the 

 wings of the young birds, who made some resistance 

 with their bills and talons, he put them into a basket, 

 and began to descend, and in a few minutes the over- 

 hanging masses of stone hid him from our view. The 

 old birds were in sight during the transaction, and made 

 no attempt to defend their young, but soaring about a 

 quarter of a mile above, occasionally uttered a short 

 shrill scream, very different from their usual barking 

 noise. Had they attempted a rescue, the situation of 

 the climber would have been extremely dangerous, as 



