Page:Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1838 Vol.2.djvu/238

220 these the Fulmar and other fowl deposit their eggs, and the daring skill of the natives is usually called forth. The fowlers generally climb in pairs, each being furnished with a stout rope eight fathoms long, one of which connects the two climbers by the waists, and the other is car- ried coiled on the neck of the one who has least to do : thus they scramble from shelf to shelf, assisting each other apparently so slightly by the little touches and checks of the rope which are observable be- tween them, that their movements are almost unintelligible to a behold- er ; though when it is considered, how slender a thread will determine a nicely balanced object, it will readily be imagined that much of their skill consists in these movements. In descending a smooth, perpendicular face of rock, of twenty or thirty feet in height, they have a method of assisting each other which struck me as remarkably ingenious : in it both ropes are employed, each climber having one end of his own rope firmly attached to his waist, while the other remains at liberty. Suppose it is their object to place A on a ledge 20 feet below where they both stand ; B chooses as deep a niche of the rock as he can find, and leaning far back into it, fixes himself firmly in his situation ; A then lays hold of the rope attached to B's waist, and B simulta- neously seizes that tied to A, and A, leaving the ledge with his feet, begins to let himself down by the rope at his companion's waist, relieved at the same time of one half his weight by B, who is sup- porting him by the other rope. Sometimes, when a deeper descent is made, and ledges do not present themselves, a longer rope is employ- ed, and climbers are let dov/n one by one by their companions, to places where their usual system of climbing in pairs is available. Yet with all their skill, no season passes over without the destruction of some of these men, and there is scarcely a portion of rock of any extent which has not some mournful tale attached to it. The only weapon, they use in capturing the birds, is a clumsily made rod of thirteen or fourteen feet in length, with a noose of horse hair, stiffened at its junction to the wood, with slips of quill ; this is cauti- ously thrust forward until it encircles the head of the victim, and then rapidly and unceremoniously withdrawn with its struggling burden. This is the most destructive and common method, and is used against