Terrific Path on the Edge of a Precipice. 179 



taken, they are landed. Six persons are em- 

 ployed in this fishery, taking the perilous office 

 of scout and that of fisherman by turns; and 

 paying a rent of fifty pounds a-year. There are 

 other fisheries of the same kind in the bay, but 



none so productive. 



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On our return to Ballantray, we pursued our 

 way along the cliff, where the road was so near 

 the edge of the precipice as to compel me to 

 seek a less terrific path. I wanted the habit of 

 disregarding the particular danger with which I 

 felt myself threatened ; and possibly the Car- 

 rickarede scouts, who unconcernedly sit on the 

 elevated pinnacle of the rock, within a hair's 

 breadth of destruction, would have felt equal 

 apprehension on descending the shaft of a col- 

 liery, which custom had rendered familiar to us. 



Appearances of prodigious, though remote, 

 convulsions of nature were every where visible, 

 as we passed the rocks ; in the formation of 

 which, the strata were seen lying confusedly in 

 all directions. 



Ballantray is a small village : the soil about it 

 appeared to be good, by the luxuriance of the 

 crops, which were ready for the sickle, though 

 the hay harvest was npt yet finished. The 

 practice is here adopted of piking hay, after the 



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