EGG- GA THERING. 209 



length, is attached. To the end of this immense line a plank is 

 tied, upon which the fowler seats himself. This man holds in his 

 hand a light cord for the purpose of signalling to his companions 

 above. The fowler, thus seated, descends from cliff to cliff, and 

 from rock to rock ; he visits every nook and cranny in search of 

 plunder, making an ample harvest of eggs and birds, either taking 

 them by hand, or striking them with the end of his line. The 

 product of his perilous expedition he places in a sort of havresack, 

 which he carries slung from the shoulder. When he wishes to 

 change his place, he gives a preconcerted signal with his cord, im- 

 parting an oscillating motion to it in the direction of that part of 

 the rock he wishes to visit. When the harvest is deemed sufficient 

 — when the day's sport is concluded — his companions are notified, 

 and the fowler is hoisted to the summit of the cliff (Plate IV.) 



How incredible is the address, and how great the courage, 

 required to induce a man to let himself be suspended by a slender 

 cord over a precipice some hundreds of feet in height \ and how 

 hazardous, how frightful the peril ! for the cord might be cut by 

 chafing against the sharp rock as he changes his situation from place 

 to place. It has sometimes happened to those above to hear one 

 loud heart-rending shriek, the cry of despair ; the men who hold 

 the rope lean forward, they see nothing, they hear only the great 

 voice of the sea, which drowns all other sounds as it breaks against 

 the cliffs ; they hasten to draw up the cord ; alas, its reduced 

 weight too plainly tells what has happened ! The fowler has been 

 seized with vertigo ; or, probably, he has overreached himself and lost 

 his equilibrium on the slippery stones, and the wave which roars at 

 the base of this wall of rock has closed over him. 



It is such accidents as these which induce the inhabitant of the 

 Faroe Islands, when he leaves his house on such an expedition, to 

 bid farewell to his family. Fatal catastrophes, however, are not 

 frequent. Men who live in those climates which Nature seems to 

 have disinherited, become accustomed to struggle with the elements, 

 and almost always to triumph over the dangers which surround 

 them. They go to demand from the abyss food for their wives and 

 children, and this animates and sustains their courage. 



The Common Guillemot (Uria Troile). 



Individuals of this species are to be found dispersed over all our 

 seas, in small parties or singly, during the interval between the 

 breeding seasons. In estuaries, bays, and narrows, where herrings 



o 



