ST. KILDA AND ITS BIRDS. 351 



A successf al throw having been effected, however, and the 

 rope made taut, the first man to land Walks up the per- 

 pendicular rock face, with his feet at right angles to the 

 rock, hauling himself up hand over hand by the rope now 

 fixed above him. When your turn comes to land you 

 follow suit, but with the additional advantage of having a 

 rope tied round your waist and held by the man above, 

 who can thus render material assistance. It is possible 

 for a person to be hauled up in this way to the ledge above 

 as a dead weight, but the proper method of procedure is 

 to walk up, as the natives do, with the feet at right angles 

 to the rock, and a little confidence enables this to be done, 

 especially with the assistance afforded by the second rope. 

 The climb to the top of the Stack is a very interesting 

 one. There are two rather awkward bits to surmount, 

 but when these have been successfully negotiated, the rest 

 of the climb presents no particular difficulty. On the way 

 up you get amongst a crowd of Guillemots nesting on the 

 ledge Jby which you ascend, and here I identified several 

 of the Ringed form sitting on their eggs. Near the top of 

 the ledge by which the ascent is made is a little rude 

 shelter, the so-called ''house,' which the men used to 

 occupy even for some days at a time when making raids 

 upon the Gannets. The floor is now silted up with a large 

 collection of Gannet bones, the remains of a former 

 successful foray, which the men had been unable to 

 remove. The shelter of the " house " was evidently 

 appreciated by the Fulmars, for I found that five of these 

 birds had taken possession, and were sitting each on its 

 single ogg, which rested on a layer of Gannet bones. The 

 top of the Stack is made up of two extensive sloping faces, 

 and the sight presented when these are reached is a 

 wonderful one, the whole surface being thickly covered 

 with Gannets sitting on their nests, which occupy every 

 PD 



