IN SHETLAND AND ST. KILDA. 273 



fall headlong: however, he succeeded, and when at 

 the top, waved his hat and cheered his friends; and 

 then having, with their assistance on the opposite 

 side, arranged the ropes and cradle, might have been 

 the first to cross safely and successfully over his own 

 bridge, but being fool-hardy, and determined to 

 descend by the way he had got up, before he had 

 accomplished a third of the distance, his foot slipped, 

 and he was dashed to pieces. 



But though here and there, accommodations like 

 this, or others, for facilitating the visits of the bird- 

 catchers to their particular haunts, may be at hand, 

 by far the greater number are taken by enterprising 

 individuals, who have only their own steadiness of 

 head, strength of muscle, and dauntless spirit, to 

 insure success. We will describe the means and 

 proceedings of those in St. Kilda, a small speck of 

 an island, the most westward and distant, (save a 

 still smaller needle-pointed uninhabited spot, called 

 Rockall,) in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean, con- 

 taining a few people, who, from infancy accustomed 

 to precipices, drop from crag to crag, as fearlessly as 

 the birds themselves. Their great dependence is 

 upon ropes of two sorts; one made of hides, the 

 other of hair of cows' tails, all of the same thickness. 

 The former are the most ancient, and still continue 

 in the greatest esteem, as being stronger, and less 

 liable to wear away, or be cut by rubbing against 

 the sharp edges of rocks. These ropes are of various 

 lengths, from ninety to a hundred and twenty, and 

 nearly two hundred feet in length, and about three 

 inches in circumference. Those of hide are made of 

 cows' and sheep's hides mixed together. The hide of 



VOL. II. T 



