BIRD-CATCHING. 
437 
descends, always holding by one part of the rope, as he 
lets himself down by the other, and supported from falling 
only by the man above, who has no part of the rope fastened 
to him, but holds it merely in his hands, and sometimes 
supports his comrade by one hand alone, looking at the 
same time over the precipice, without any stay for his feet, 
and conversing with the other, as he descends to a depth 
of nearly four hundred feet. A bird-catcher, on finding 
himself amongst the Fulmars’ nests, took four, and with 
two in each hand, contrived, nevertheless, to hold the rope 
as he ascended; and, striking his foot against the rock, 
threw himself out from the face of the precipice, and 
returning with a bound, would again fly out, capering and 
shouting, and playing all sorts of tricks. Frightful as such 
a display must be to those unaccustomed to it, accidents are 
extremely rare; and the St. Kildians seem to think the 
possibility of a fatal termination to these exploits almost out 
of the question. 
It is indeed astonishing to what a degree habit and 
practice, with steady nerves, may remove danger. From the 
island of the South Stack above mentioned, boys may be 
seen frequently scrambling by themselves; or, held on by an 
urchin or two of their own age, letting themselves down the 
picturesque precipice opposite the island, by a piece of rope, 
so slender and apparently rotten, that the wonder is why it 
does not snap at the first strain. Yet, without a particle of 
fear, heedless of consequences, they will swing themselves to 
a ledge barely wide enough to admit the foot of a goat, and 
thence pick their way with or without the rope, to pillage 
the nest of a Gull, which, if aware of its own powers, might 
flap them headlong to the bottom. 
Here, too, in St. Kilda, accidents are said to be of rare 
occurrence, though of course they do occasionally happen ; 
but escapes sufficiently appalling to make the blood run 
cold to hear of, are common enough. 
The first we shall mention happened about two miles from 
the South Stack, on the rocky coast of Ehoscolin. A lady, 
living near the spot, sent a boy in search of samphire with 
