THE GUILLEMOT. 



217 



" He first puts on what he calls his ' breeches,' a belt of flat rope with a small loop at each end 

 to which the cord by which he is suspended is attached, and two large loops through which he 

 puts his legs. An iron bar is driven into the ground, to which a rope is attached to hang down 

 the cliff to assist him in raising himself, and with which to make signals to the men above when 

 he wants them to raise him or lower him down. An iron pulley running on a swivel attached 

 to an iron spike is fastened on the edge of the precipice, so that the rope may not chafe. 



" The danger of ' dimming,' i.e., the danger of falling, is very slight indeed : the real danger 

 consists in pieces of rock becoming detached and falling on the unfortunate 'dimmer.' L. told me 



he had ' clum ' for six-and-thirty years, and had met with only one really serious accident. A piece 

 of rock, about half the size of his head, detached itself some thirty feet above him, and, though he 

 saw it coming, he could not get out of its way. If it had fallen on his head it must inevitably 

 have dashed his brains out, but he put up his arm to protect himself. His arm was not broken, 

 but the muscle was absolutely torn from the bone, and it was nearly two years before he could 

 raise it to his head again. He divides his ground into three days' work, so that he takes it all 

 twice a week, when weather permits ; in very wet or windy weather he does not ' dim.' Operations 

 commence about the 14th of May. For the first nine days he has a good run of eggs, as the 

 birds that breed on the ledges he visits have most of them laid ; for the next nine days eggs are 

 scarce. At the end of that time a second egg has been laid by the birds whose eggs he took 

 during the first nine days, and he has a second run of successful collecting. He considers from 

 two to three hundred eggs a good take. He has then a second nine days slack, and after that 

 comes his Midsummer fling, or ' shut.' This is a very precarious one, and in some seasons is not 



