276 BIRD-CATCHING. 



by the adventurer himself, standing at the edge : 

 when, giving the middle of the rope to a single 

 man, he descends, always holding hy one part of the 

 rope, as he lets himself down by the other, and sup- 

 ported from falling only by the man above, who has 

 no part of the rope fastened to him, but holds it 

 merely in his hands, and sometimes supports his 

 comrade by one hand alone, looking at the same time 

 over the precipice, without any stay for his feet, and 

 conversing with the other, as he descends to a depth 

 of nearly four hundred feet. A bird-catcher, on 

 finding himself amongst the Fulmars' nests, took 

 four, and with two in each hand, contrived, neverthe- 

 less, to hold the rope as he ascended ; and, striking 

 his foot against the rock, threw himself out from 

 the face of the precipice, and returning with a 

 bound, would again fly out, capering and shouting, 

 and playing all sorts of tricks. Frightful as such a 

 display must be to those unaccustomed to it, acci- 

 dents are extremely rare ; and the St. Kildians seem 

 to think the possibility of a fatal termination to 

 these exploits almost out of the question. 



It is, indeed, astonishing to what a degree habit 

 and practice, with steady nerves, may remove dan- 

 ger. From the island of the South Stack above men- 

 tioned, boys may be seen frequently scrambling by 

 themselves, or held on by an urchin or two of their 

 own age, letting themselves down the picturesque 

 precipice opposite the island, by a piece of rope, so 

 slender, and apparently rotten, that the wonder is 

 why it does not snap at the first strain. Yet, 

 without a particle of fear, heedless of consequences, 

 they will swing themselves to a ledge barely wide 



