EGG-HUNTING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 25 August 1924, Page 7

EGG-HUNTING.

dangerous but profitable WORK. Visitors to the Flamborough district in June each year may see an interesting spectacle, for the egg-hunters are at work, states a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. Hanging by a stout rope two hundred feet below the top of a steep cliff, the egg-hunter nimbly swings from ledge to ledge collecting sea-birds’ eggs. Kittiwake, puffin, razorbill, and guillemot nest here in thousands, and their eggs are great-' ly prized, sometimes for their wonderful markings, and always for their special flavour. The season for collecting starts in May and goes on until late in June. Usually the egg-hunters work in fours, The climber takes the largest share of profits, for the dangerous work is his. Their outfit consists of a, leather saddle, fastened round the climber’s legs and waist, to which the rope by which he is let down is fastened. A second man, wearing a stout leather belt, sits on. the cliff, and with the climbing rope passed round his belt, acts as a human windlass. The other two men help in hauling up and lowering their mate. A guide rope, lowered before the climber, goes over, helps him to preserve his balance and provides a means of signalling. It is a wonderful sight to see a climber kicking off from ledge to ledge, fending himself off from the projecting rocks, and dodging bits of cliff that have been loosened in the climb. Sometimes these falling rocks will strike the climber’s head, hut ns lie is protected with an old helmet stuffed with straw, ft is seldom that he is hurt. It is dangerous but profitable work, and provides a livelihood for quite a number of men on the Yorkshire coast