40 
MEMOIR OP PENNANT. 
treraity to whicli the poor people are driven for 
want of food. Copinsha, Hunda, Hoy, Foula, 
and Ness Head, are the most celebrated rocks ; 
and the neighbouring natives are the most expert 
climbers and adventurers after the game of the 
precipice. The height of some is above fifty fa- 
thoms ; their faces roughened with shelves or ledges, 
sufficient only for the birds to rest and lay their eggs. 
To these the dauntless fowlers will ascend, pass 
intrepidly fi'om the one to the other, collect the 
eggs and birds, and descend with the same indif- 
ference. In most places the attempt is made from 
above ; they are lowered from the slope contiguous 
to the brink by a rope, sometimes made of straw, 
sometimes of the bristle of the hog ; the last they 
prefer even to ropes of hemp, as it is not liable to 
be cut by the sharpness of the rocks ; the former is 
apt to untwist. They trust themselves to a single 
assistant, who lets his companion dorvn and holds 
the rope, depending on his strength alone, which 
often fails, and the adventurer is sure to be dashed 
in pieces, or drowned in the subjacent sea. The 
rope is often shifted from place to place, with the 
impending weight of the fowler and his booty. 
The person above receives signals for the purpose. 
Ills associate being far out of sight, who, during 
the operation, by help of a staff, springs from the 
face of the rocks, to avoid injury from the projecting 
parts. 
“ In Foula, they will trust to a small stake driven 
