MEMOIR OF PENNANT. 4l 



into the ground, or to a small dagger which the 

 natives usually carry about them, and which they 

 will stick into the ground, and twisting round it a 

 fishing cord, descend by that to climbing places, 

 and after finishing their business, scramble up by it 

 without fear. Few who make a practice of this, 

 come to a natural death. They have a common 

 saying, ' Such a one's gutcher went over the sneak ; 

 and my father went over the sneak too/ It is a 

 pity that the old Norwegian law was not here ill 

 force. It considered this kind of death as a species 

 of suicide. The next of kin, in case the body could 

 be seen, was directed to go the same way ; if he 

 refused, the corpse was not to be admitted into 

 holy ground. 



" But the most singular species of fowling is in 

 the holm of Ness, a vast rock severed from the isle 

 of Ness by some unknown convulsion, and only 

 about sixteen fathoms distant. It is of the same 

 stupendous height (1480 feet) as the opposite pre- 

 cipice, with a raging sea between, so that the 

 intervening chasm is of matchless horror. Some 

 adventurous climber, having reached the rock in a 

 boat and gained the height, fastens several stakes 

 on the small portion of earth which is to be found 

 on the top ; correspondent stakes are placed on the 

 edge of the correspondent cliffs. A rope is fixed 

 to the stakes on both sides, along which a machine, 

 called a cradle, is contrived to slide, and by the 

 help of a small parallel cord, fastened in Hke 



