94 THE OCEAy. 



a companion or two, he seeks the base of the cliiT ; 

 and leaving them below, he fearlessly climbs the pre- 

 cipice, and gains the summit. A thin stratum of 

 earth is found on the top, into which he drives some 

 strong stakes ; and having descended and performed 

 the same operation on the opposite cliff, he stretches 

 a rope from one to the other, and tightly fastens it. 

 On this rope a sort of basket, called a cradle, is 

 made to traverse, and the adventurous islander now 

 commits himself to the frail car, and suspended 

 between sea and sky, hauls himself backward and 

 forward by means of a line. And do you ask what 

 prize can tempt man to incur such fearful hazard, 

 lavish of his life ? It is the eggs and young of a sea- 

 bird, the fishy taste and oily smell of whose flesh 

 would present little gratification to any whose senses 

 were not made obtuse by necessity. The Gannets 

 and Guillemots dwell in countless myriads on these 

 naked rocks, laying their eggs and rearing their 

 progeny wherever the surface presents a ledge suffi- 

 ciently broad to hold them. Their immense numbers 

 render them an object of importance to the inhabitants 

 of these barren islands, who derive from them, either 

 in a fresh state or salted and dried, a considerable 

 portion of their sustenance. 



In some other situations the fowlers have recourse 

 to a still more hazardous mode of procedure. The 

 cliffs are sometimes twelve hundred feet in height, 

 and fearfully overhanging. If it is determined to 

 proceed from above, the adventurer prepares a rope, 

 made either of straw or of hog's bristles, because 

 these materials are less liable to be cut through by 



