116 Some Account of tJte Northern Light-houses. 



Islay, Buchanness, Tarbetness, Mull of Galloway, Cape Wrathy 

 Dunnet Head, Bara Head, Girdleness, and Lismore. Some of 

 these stations form the principal forelands of the coast, and their 

 erection has been attended with very considerable expense, from 

 the difficulties of access both by sea and land. At Cape Wrath, 

 for example, landing-places had to be formed, and 10 miles of 

 road to be made, chiefly through a deep morass. Till of late 

 when this district became the property of the Duke of Suther- 

 land, the light-house was about 70 miles from a post-office; but 

 there is now a post established at the small hamlet of Durness, 

 about 12 miles from Cape Wrath. Bara-head station, however, 

 forming the southern termination of the Lewis, Harris, and Bara 

 Isles, is exposed to still greater difficulties in this respect than 

 Cape Wrath, even in its former state. The light-house stores 

 and coal, where peat-fuel cannot be had, for the use of the light- 

 keepers, are carried by the general Light-house Tender of 140 

 tons, assisted by the Pharos Bell Rock Tender of 50 tons, be- 

 longing to the Board. In these vessels the visiting officers and 

 artificers for repairs are also transported to the several stations ; 

 and the engineer makes his inspection in the former vessel, ac- 

 companied occasionally by some of the members of the Board. 

 It is part of the arrangement in conducting this system, that 

 the light-keepers, agreeably to printed forms, make monthly re- 

 turns, containing in particular the quantity of oil nightly used, 

 the precise moment of hghting and extinguishing the lights, the 

 order in which the respective keepers mount watch, the prevail- 

 ing state of the weather, the height of the barometer and ther- 

 mometer, and state of the rain-gauge, with which instruments 

 each station is supplied. As the keepers at the Bell Rock have 

 rations of provisions, their returns, which will be seen at page 433 

 of the Account of the Bell Rock Light-house, are necessarily 

 more complicated than at ordinary stations. The keepers are 

 also furnished with Shipwreck-returns, as at page 436, which 

 are filled up and dispatched to the engineer in case of ship- 

 wreck in the neighbourhood. They state the circumstances at- 

 tending any shipwreck, and have been occasionally called for at 

 Lloyd's. The Light-house Board has also a report from the 

 coast-guard, and the cruisers, in the event of any defect being 

 observed in the appearance of the lights as seen at sea. Upon 

 the whole, the completely effective state of the Northern Lights, 



