274 
A SOURCE OF REVENUE. 
pays sixty or seventy pounds per annum, and depends for 
his returns chiefly upon the Gannets which breed there, 
and the adventurous natives who are let down from the cliffs 
that hang over the sea, while, with little or no support, they 
collect the eggs of these and other aquatic birds in a basket 
tied round their waists. The feathers also of these birds 
are gathered from the rocks, and are a great source of 
revenue to these poor and industrious people. 
The good Bishop of Down and Connor will here again 
furnish us with a poetical picture, than which nothing 
could be more apt and illustrative : — 
Down rushing from, his cloudy height, 
With stronger bill, and swifter flight, 
And heavier weight, and broader sweep 
Of pinion, plunges in the deep 
The snow-white G-annet. 
^ * -jf- if * 
And so the summer long they flock 
In clouds about the sea-girt rock, 
There on their single eggs to brood, 
To hatch their speckled young ; for food, 
From their steep watch-tower in the sky, 
Mark with keen glance the herring fry 
Beneath the mantling waves advance, 
"With motion quick as that keen glance, 
Sheer on the passing prey below. 
With black- tipt wing outstretch' d, to throw 
Their weight abrupt, and through the air 
Aloft the frequent victim bear. 
