BIRD-CATCHING IN SHETLAND. 433 



of Albatrosses, hovering like a cloud, some continually 

 alighting and meeting their companions, while others are as 

 continually rising and shaping their coarse towards the sea. 



Many of the birds of the two latter tribes, either from 

 their feathers, skins, oil, or eggs, are considered, as it were, 

 the standard harvest of the poor people, who, like them, are 

 destined to abide amidst the wild and lonely islands of the 

 ocean : it is, therefore, natural to suppose that no means are 

 neglected, no ingenuity left untried, in providing, whether 

 for rent, clothing, food, or the lamp-light of their long and 

 dreary Winter's nights, by laying in a store of each of these 

 important articles, for which they are indebted to their com- 

 panions, the sea-birds. And as the risks and difficulties 

 which they encounter, and overcome, form leading features in 

 their lives, we shall close our account with a few of the 

 hazardous and interesting details connected with the reaping 

 of this their fearful harvest. 



It is chiefly on the most rugged shores of Scotland, or on 

 the more rugged rocks of the several adjacent islands, or still 

 further to the north, in the Shetland or Ferroe Islands, that 

 this " dreadful trade" is carried on in the perfection of its 

 horrors ; though in some parts of Wales, as, for instance, 

 near the South Stack above-mentioned, and the Needle Rocks 

 off the Isle of Wight, adventurous climbers will occasionally 

 exhibit feats of perilous achievement, quite sufficient to satisfy 

 most beholders. In some parts of the coast, immense 

 mounds or fragments of rocks have been cut off from the 

 main land by terrible convulsions of nature, or the incessant 

 wearing of waves through fissures and narrow channels for 

 successive ages. On a few of these spots, sea-birds, for a 

 time, rested securely, till some bold adventurers devised the 

 means of invading their territories, crossing the space by 

 means of cradles, suspended on ropes thrown across. 



At Carrick-a-Reade, near the Giant's Causeway, in Ire- 

 land, and in the Shetland Islands, two of these airy convey- 

 ances are still in use; and, until a suspension-bridge was 

 erected a few years ago, a third, and tolerably commodious 

 and safe one, existed, connecting the South Stack rock with 



