. Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; . hers might go to decorate pretty women. Whetherhis trade still exists I cannot tell, but his by-name, Jimmy theWallopper, is not forgotten in Dunfanaghy. Off the eastwardpoint of Horn Head is a salmon net, fixed a couple of hundredyards from the cliffs, and stretching perhaps another twohundred. It seems a futile trap in a place where the bay openseight miles; but the fish have their known tracks in the sea,and that net two hundred yards further in or further out would, A DESPERATE CLIMB 153 they say, never kill a fish. At the base of the cliffs,
. Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; . hers might go to decorate pretty women. Whetherhis trade still exists I cannot tell, but his by-name, Jimmy theWallopper, is not forgotten in Dunfanaghy. Off the eastwardpoint of Horn Head is a salmon net, fixed a couple of hundredyards from the cliffs, and stretching perhaps another twohundred. It seems a futile trap in a place where the bay openseight miles; but the fish have their known tracks in the sea,and that net two hundred yards further in or further out would, A DESPERATE CLIMB 153 they say, never kill a fish. At the base of the cliffs, close tothe end of it, is a shelter—half hut, half cave—where a watcherlives to protect the net, not so much from land thieves as thosesea-robbers the seals. They follow the salmon right into themeshes, and rip and tear the net with their strong teeth: so ifa seals head is seen bobbing on top of the water—and a queeruncanny object it is—a bullet goes after it. Once there camenear to be a tragedy in this shelter. The watcher took out a. Dunfanaghy. child of his there for company ; rough weather came on, whenno boats could get near his landing place, and his supply of foodran out, nor could he communicate with the town. The cliffabove him was not impracticable to a good cragsman, thoughfew have ever climbed it : but on that wild day of storm helashed the boy on his back, and fought up from ledge to ledgeto the cliff top, three hundred feet above him. Strangelyenough, violent death overtook both the man and boy within afew years. The boy fell over the same cliff when he was trying 154 HORN HEAD CHAP. to take a cormorants nest; the man, going home across theheadland, made to jump a small ditch, caught his foot, fell onhis head, and was found there with his neck broken. On a still day you can approach in the boat and get into thehuge caves, which a blue light—if you have one—will showyou opening up mysterious arches higher than a cathedralroof. But it is not by any means
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Keywords: ., bookauthorthomsonh, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1903
