IN SHETLAND AND ST. HILDA. 
281 
fall headlong : however, he succeeded, and when at 
the top, waved his hat and cheered his friends ; and 
then having, with their assistance on the opposite 
side, arranged the ropes and cradle, might have been 
the first to cross safely and successfully over his own 
bridge,— but being fool-hardy, and determined to 
descend by the way he had got up, before he had 
accomplished a third of the distance, his foot slipped, 
and he was dashed to pieces. 
But though here and there, accommodations like 
this, or others, for facilitating the visits of the bird- 
catchers to their particular haunts, may be at hand, 
by far the greater number are taken by enterprising 
individuals, who have only their own steadiness of 
head, strength of muscle, and dauntless spirit, to 
insure success. We will describe the means and 
proceedings of those in St. Kilda, a small speck of 
of an island, the most westward and distant, (save a 
still smaller needle-pointed uninhabited spot, called 
Rockall,) in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean, con- 
taining a few people, who, from infancy accustomed 
to precipices, drop from crag to crag, as fearlessly as 
the birds themselves. Their great dependence is 
upon ropes of two sorts ; one made of hides, — the 
other of hair of cows' tails, all of the same thickness. 
The former are the most ancient, and still continue 
in the greatest esteem, as being stronger, and less 
liable to wear away, or be cut by rubbing against 
the sharp edges of rocks. These ropes are of various 
lengths, from ninety to a hundred and twenty, and 
nearly two hundred feet in length, and about three 
inches in circumference. Those of hide are made of 
cows' and sheep's hides mixed together. The hide of 
