350 



VERTEBRATA. 



THE CAPE FULMAR. 



tary excursion that a man, having fastened his rope to a stake on the top, let himself down far 

 below, and, in his ardor for collecting birds and eggs, followed the course of a ledge, beneath a 

 mass of overhanging rock ; unfortunately, he had omitted to take the usual precaution of tying 

 the rope round his body, but held it carelessly in his hand, when, in a luckless moment, as he 

 was busily engaged in pillaging a nest, it slipped from his grasp, and, after swinging backward 

 and forward three or four times, without coming within reach, at last became stationary over the 

 ledge of the projecting rock, leaving the bird-catcher apparently without a chance of escape ; for 

 to ascend the precipice without a rope was impossible, and none were near to hear his cries or 

 afford him help. What was to be done ? Death stared him in the face. After a few minutes' 

 pause he made up his mind. By a desperate leap he might regain the rope ; but if he failed, 

 and, at the distance at which it hung, the chances were against him, his fate was certain, amid 

 the pointed crags ready to receive him, over Avhich the waves were dashing far, far below. Col- 

 lecting, therefore, all his strength, with outstretched arms he sprang from the rock, and lived to 

 tell the tale — for the rope was caught ! 



The next occurred at St. Kilda, where, among other modes of catching the sea-fowl, that of 

 setting gins or nooses is adopted. They are fixed in various places frequented by the birds. In 

 one of these, set upon a ledge a hundred and twenty feet above the sea, a bird-catcher entangled 

 his foot, and not being at the moment aware of it, was, on moving onward, tripped up, and pre- 

 cipitated over the rock, Avliere he hung suspended, lie too, as in the preceding case, had no 

 companion, and to add to his misfortune, darkness was at hand, leaving little prospect of his 

 being discovered before morning. In vain he exerted himself to bend upward, so as to reach 

 the noose or grapple the rock. After a few fruitless efforts, his strength was exhausted, and in 

 this dreadful situation, expecting, moreover, that the noose might give way every instant, did he 

 pass a long night. At early dawn, by good fortune, his shouts were heard by a neighbor, who 

 rescued him from his perilous suspension. 



The last we shall relate terminated in a more awful manner. A fiither and two sons were out 

 together, and, having firmly attached their rope at the summit of a precipice, descended, on their 

 usual occupation. Having collected as many birds and eggs as they could carry, they were all 

 three ascending by the rope — the eldest of the sons first, his brother a fathom or two below 

 him, and the father following last. They had made considerable progress, when the elder son, 

 looking upward, perceived the strands of the rope grinding against a sharp edge of rock, and 

 gradually giving w^ay. He immediately reported the alarming fact. " Will it hold together till 

 we can gain the summit ?" asked the father. " It will not hold another minute," was the reply ; 

 " our triple weight is loosening it rapidly !" " WiU it hold one ?" said the father. " It is as 

 much as it can do," replied the son; "even that is doubtful." "There is then a chance, at 



