Ora Re key Nis dh: Bi Sy 
precious gems. Birds and fifh of prey attend and mark their progrefs. The 
Whales of feveral kinds keep on the outfide, and, deliberately opening their 
vaft mouths, take them im by hundreds. Gannets and Gulls dart down upon 
them ; and the diving tribe aid their perfecution, with the cetaceous fifhes*. 
Mankind joins in the chace ; for this ufeful fpecies gives food to millions, medi- 
ately and immediately. Dutch, French, Flemings, Danes, and Engli/h, rendezvous in 
Braffa found to meet thefe treafures of the ocean: and return to diftribute their 
booty even to the diftant Antilles. a 
Cod, Ling, and Torfe +, furnifh cargoes to other adventurers. I wifh I could 
{peak with the fame fatisfaction, of this as of the free fifhery of the Herring; but 
in thefe diftant iflands, the hand of oppreffion reigns uncontrolled. The poor 
vaffals (in defiance of laws ftill kept in bondage) are compelled to flave, and hazard 
their lives in the capture, to deliver their fith to their lords for a trifling fum, who 
fell them to adventurers from different parts at a high price. 
Among other fcarcer fifhes the Opah, Br.JZao/. iii. N° 101. is found in abundance. 
It feems a fifh of the north as well as the Tor/k; the laft is not found fouth of 
the Orknies ; the former extends even to the banks of Newfoundland. 
The birds of thefe iflands are the fame with thofe of the Orkaies, except the 
Skua, p. 531, which breeds only in Foula and Unj?. Among the few land-birds 
which migrate to them in fummer, is the Golden-crefted Wren, N° 153. Its 
fhorteft fight muft be fixty miles, except it fhauld reft midway on Fair ifland ; 
a furprifing flight for fo diminutive a bird! 
Multitudes of the inhabitants of each clufter of iflands feed, during the feafon, 
on the eggs.of the birds of the cliffs. The method of taking them is fo very 
hazardous, as. to fatisfy one of the extremity to which the poor people are 
driven for want of food, Copinfha, Hunda, Hoy, Foula, and Nofs head, are the 
moft celebrated rocks ; and the neighboring natives the moft expert climbers and 
adventurers after the game of the precipice. The height of fome is above fifty 
fathoms ; their faces roughened with fhelves.or ledges, fufficient only for the birds 
to.reft and lay their eggs. lo thefe the dauntlefs fowlers will afcend, pafs in- 
trepidly from one to the other, collect the eggs and birds, and defcend with 
the fame indifference.. In moft places, the attempt is made from above : they are 
lowered from the flope contiguous to the brink, by a rope, fometimes made of 
ftraw, fometimes.of the briftles of the hog: they prefer the laft, even to ropes 
of hemp, as it is.not. liable to be cut by the fharpnefs of the rocks.; the former 
is apt to untwift. They truft themfelves to a fingle affiftant, who lets his 
companion down, aid holds the rope, depending on his ftrength alone ; which 
* See my Voy, to the Hebrides, and Br. Zool, iti. for the hiftory of the Herring. + Br. Zool. iii, No 89. 
often 
XXIX 
Cop-FIsH. 
Opars 
Birps. 
Fowninc, 
