MODERN CLIFF-DWELLERS 



put in the plate and made ready, placing the camera 

 in the same position on the railing, and making 

 instantaneous exposures. The crate kept turning 

 around, but so slowly that it made no difference, 

 the view-finder of the camera giving the exact 

 range. Thus I was lowered successively from ledge 

 to ledge, swinging off in mid-air, till I had photo- 

 graphed everything within useful range, when I 



^^m* 



\v THEM [WERE] THREE KITTIWAKES ON THEIR NESTS " 



signalled to be drawn up. There were no birds 

 nesting close to the other hoisting-apparatus, or I 

 should have made a descent there too. 



Earlier in the afternoon we had seen a schooner 

 anchor off North Bird Rock. A dory went ashore, 

 and we could hear the gunshots as they were killing 

 the birds. After a time the men rowed over to the 

 main rock, landed, and two of them, and a boy, 

 climbed up the ladder. The men went around shoot- 

 ing raking shots along the lines of birds upon their 

 nests, mowing them down. Most of those killed 

 simply lay dead upon the nesting-spot, where they 



79 



