BIRD-CATCHING. 
491 
the seat of the climber, until the latter has reached 
some ledge where he can find good foothold; from 
this place the first climber draws up his companion: 
thus they help one another in turn, until the desired 
spot has been reached. Here—if unused to man’s pre¬ 
sence—the fowlers simply seize the dumbfounded birds 
with the hand, without their making any effort to escape. 
Besides these many are caught in the net as they fly past, 
just as a boy would catch a butterfly. In the space of a 
few hours these two will throw down to their companions 
beneath some hundreds of dead birds. The descent is 
much more dangerous than the ascent, and is carried on 
the reverse way to the latter. During this part of the 
operation it not unseldom happens that the one who is 
climbing slips, or that the rock crumbles under him, so 
that both man and stones are launched into space. It is 
at this critical moment that the one above must keep his 
foothold, else both will be dashed to pieces on the rocks 
in the surf beneath. Climbing the precipice from the 
side is done in much the same fashion as the ascent from 
below; the method adopted when descending from the 
top is quite different. 
“ A three-inch rope, varying from six to twelve hun¬ 
dred feet in length, is made fast round the waist of the 
fowler, and by this rope he is lowered down into the 
abyss beneath: the rope is held by six men on the top, 
who take care that it does not chafe against the sharp 
edges of the rock; the fowler, seated in a webbing of 
broad thongs, attaches a thin line to his wrist, with which 
to signal to his comrades at the top, and then descends. 
An inexperienced person would spin round and round in 
the air during the operation like a whirligig, and would 
easily come to grief. The fowler, however, knows how to 
