44 PHOTOGRAPHY FOR BIRD-LOVERS. 



friend and the ever useful line into service. 

 Swim across with one end of the line made 

 fast to you, preferably by passing a loop over 

 one shoulder and under the opposite arm an 

 apparently small point, the importance of which 

 was once forcibly impressed upon me. I was 

 swimming over to an islet in a Hebridean loch, 

 with the line tied loosely round my chest. When 

 some two-thirds of the way over, and just as I was 

 struggling with some floating vegetation, the line 

 slipped downwards, binding my legs together and 

 rendering them useless ; since that time I have 

 always passed the line over one shoulder. 



Having reached the island, make for the highest 

 point near the mainland the man on shore 

 must also seek high ground if there is any near 

 the edge of the loch then pull the line taut, and 

 it will rise high above the surface of water and form 

 a kind of " blondin," by which to send the things 

 across. There are two ways of working the line, 

 the first, and that which we usually adopt, necessi- 

 tating but one line. The man on the shore fastens 

 the camera case to the line itself, and when all is 

 ready slowly and smoothly pays it out, the other 

 on the island as carefully hauling it in, keeping it 

 always taut to prevent it sagging, and so working 

 the case across. A moment's thought will show 

 that the length of the line in this case must be just 



