MEMOIR OP PENNANT- 45 



footing, he permits himself to be lowered down, 

 depending for his security to the strength of his 

 companion, who is to haul him up again ; hut it 

 sometimes happens that the person above is over- 

 powered by the weight, and both inevitably perish. 

 They fling the fowl down to the boat, which attends 

 their motions and receives the booty. They often 

 pass seven or eight days in this tremendous employ, 

 and lodge in the crannies which they find in the 

 face of the precipice. 



" The sea which surrounds these islands is ex- 

 tremely turbulent. The tides vary greatly on the 

 eastern and western sides. On the first, where is 

 received the uninterrupted flood of the ocean from 

 remote Greenland, the tide rises seven fathoms ; on 

 the eastern side, it rises only three. Dreadful 

 whirlwinds, called by the Danes oes* agitate the sea 

 to a great degree ; catch up a vast quantity of 

 water, so as to leave a great temporary chasm in 

 the spot in which it falls, and carries away with it, 

 to an amazing distance, any fishes which may hap- 

 pen to be within reach of its fury. Thus great 

 shoals of herrings have been found on the highest 

 mountains of the Faroe. It is equally resistless on 

 land, tearing up trees, stones, and animals, and car- 

 rying them to very distant places. "We must no 

 longer laugh at the good Archbishop of Upsala 

 (Olaus Magnus), who gravely tells us, that at times 

 the rats called lemming are poured down from the 

 clouds in great showers on the Alps of Norway. 



