40 MEMOIR OF PENNANT. 



tremity to which the poor people are driven for 

 want of food. Copinsha, Hunda, Hoy, Foula, 

 and Ness Head, are the most celebrated rocks; 

 and the neighbouring natives are the most expert 

 climbers and adventurers after the game of the 

 precipice. The height of some is above fifty fa- 

 thoms ; their faces roughened with shelves or ledges, 

 sufficient only for the birds to rest and lay their eggs. 

 To these the dauntless fowlers will ascend, pass 

 intrepidly from the one to the other, collect the 

 eggs and birds, and descend with the same indif- 

 ference. In most places the attempt is made from 

 above ; they are lowered from the slope contiguous 

 to the brink by a rope, sometimes made of straw, 

 sometimes of the bristle of the hog ; the last they 

 prefer even to ropes of hemp, as it is not liable to 

 be cut by the sharpness of the rocks ; the former is 

 apt to untwist. They trust themselves to a single 

 assistant, who lets his companion down and holds 

 the rope, depending on his strength alone, which 

 often fails, and the adventurer is sure to be dashed 

 in pieces, or drowned in the subjacent sea. The 

 rope is often shifted from place to place, with the 

 impending weight of the fowler and his booty. 

 The person above receives signals for the purpose, 

 his associate being far out of sight, who, during 

 the operation, by help of a staff, springs from the 

 face of the rocks, to avoid injury from the projecting 

 parts. 



" In Foula, they will trust to a small stake driven 



