214 THE STORMY PETREL. 



legist. As the stormy petrel is scarcely ever to 

 be seen near the land, except in very boisterous 

 weather, one of the natives, for a trifling remu- 

 neration, agreed to traverse the face of this rock, 

 and take me some from out of its fissures. Ac- 

 cordingly, accoutred with a rope of hemp and 

 hogs' bristles coiled over his shoulders, he pro- 

 ceeded to the cliff. Having made one end fast 

 by means of a stake, he threw the coil over the 

 face of the rock, and gradually lowered himself 

 down, but with the utmost caution, carefully 

 pressing his foot upon the narrow ridges before 

 he at all loosened his firm grasp of the rope, 

 which he never abandoned altogether. I had 

 previously thrown myself upon my chest, to 

 enable me to have a better view of him, by 

 looking over the cliffs; and certainly, to see the 

 dexterity and bravery with which he threw him- 

 self from one aperture to another was grand. 

 The Atlantic was foaming many hundred feet 

 beneath, and dashing its curling surges against 

 the dark base of the cliff, in sheets of the most 

 beautiful white; while the herring and black- 

 headed gulls sweeping past him, so as to be 

 almost within reach of his arms, threw wildness 

 into the scene, by the discordant scream of the 

 former, and the laughing, oft-repeated bark of 

 the latter. This, however, he appeared entirely 



