262 
BIRD-CATCHING 
the sheep, after being cut into narrow slips, is plated 
oyer with a broader slip of cow’s hide. Two of these 
are then twisted together ; so that the rope, when 
untwisted, is found to consist of two parts, and each 
of these contains a length of sheep-skin, coyered 
with cow’s hide. For the best, they will ask about 
thirteen pence a fathom, at which price they sell 
them to each other. 
So valuable are these ropes, that one of them 
forms the marriage portion of a St. Kilda girl ; and, 
to this secluded people, to whom monied wealth is 
little known, an article on which, often life itself, 
and all its comforts, more or less depends, is far 
beyond gold and jewels. 
The favourite resort for sea-fowl, particularly the 
oily Fulmars, is a tremendous precipice, about thirteen 
hundred feet high, formed by the abrupt termination 
of Conachan, the most elevated hill in the island, 
and supposed to be the loftiest precipitous face of 
rock in Britain. 
How fearful 
And dizzy ’tis, to cast one’s eyes so low ! 
The Crows and Choughs, that wing the midway air, 
Show scarce so gross as beetles; half way down 
Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade ! 
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head: 
The fishermen that walk upon the beach 
Appear like mice ; and yon tall anchoring bark, 
Diminished to her cock; her cock, a buoy, 
Almost too small for sight : the murmuring surge, 
That on the unnumbered idle pebbles chafes, 
Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more ; 
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight 
Topple down headlong. 
