SINGULAR ACCIDENT. 277 



enough to admit the foot of a goat, and thence pick 

 their way with or without the rope, to pillage the 

 nest of a Gull, which, if aw r are of its own powers, 

 might flap them headlong to the bottom. 



Here, too, as in St. Kilda, accidents are said to be 

 of rare occurence, though, of course, they do occa- 

 sionally happen ; but escapes, sufficiently appalling 

 to make the blood run cold to hear of, are common 

 enough. 



The first w r e shall mention, happened about two 

 miles from the South Stack, on the rocky coast of 

 Rhoscolin. A lady, living near the spot, sent a boy 

 in search of samphire, with a trusty servant, to hold 

 the rope at the top. While the boy was dangling 

 midway between sky and water, the servant, who 

 was unused to his situation, whether owing to a 

 sudden dizziness from looking downward on the 

 boy's motions, or misgivings as to his own powers 

 of holding him up, felt a cold, sickly shivering, 

 creep over him, accompanied with a certainty that 

 lie was about to faint ; the inevitable consequence 

 of which, he had sense enough left to know, would 

 be the certain death of the boy, and, in all proba- 

 bility, of himself, as in the act of fainting, it was 

 most likely he would fall forward, and follow the 

 rope and boy down the precipice. In this dilemma, 

 he uttered a loud despairing scream, which was 

 fortunately heard by a woman working in an ad- 

 joining field, who, running up, was just in time to 

 catch the rope, as the fainting man fell senseless at 

 her feet. 



We shall add two more, equally hazardous, and 

 one fatal. Many bird-catchers go on these expe- 



