140 HILLSIDE, ROCK, AND DALE 



the side of the cliff. This hardly looked strong 

 enough to stand much strain, but my friend Mr. 

 J. A. Walpole Bond climbed down to this, and took 

 the ropes with him and fastened both to the small 

 trunk. The keeper and I then went to the bottom 

 of the dingle, where the rushing waterfall's never- 

 ceasing roar drowned every other sound. Both of us 

 then hung on to the rope, and finding that it bore 

 our combined weight, I had no hesitation in pre- 

 paring for the ascent. I strapped my camera and 

 tripod to my back, and when all was ready I was 

 hauled up for fifty feet. The difficulties of manipu- 

 lating a camera when hanging in space are extremely 

 great one really needs about six hands. After a 

 deal of manoeuvring I could not manage to get the 

 tripod legs in position, owing to there being no 

 crevices or jutting pieces of rock within reach, and 

 so I had to use the apparatus as a hand-camera ; but 

 even then it took me nearly an hour to focus and 

 take a series of six pictures. However, at length 

 the hard task was clone, and I descended with my 

 camera and photographs, which I have every reason 

 to believe are the first pictures of a raven's nest with 

 its contents photographed in situ that have ever been 

 taken. Such nests have been photographed before, 

 or rather their sites, but I have never seen a picture 

 showing the eggs. 



The second nest was found on March I5th. This 



