NOTES'-.,.;",:,- V 



ON 



THE NATURAL HISTORY 



OF 



THE BELL ROCK. 



APRIL 1901. 



I WONDER how many people have had the pleasure of a trip to 

 the Bell Rock Lighthouse. I don't mean the customary trip 

 per summer steamer, which keeps at a very respectable dis- 

 tance, and gives one but a faint idea of what the building is 

 really like ; but those who have made a landing on the Rock, 

 and spent an hour or two in admiring the ingenuity and skill 

 displayed in the erection of this noble structure, which has so 

 bravely stood the test of almost a century's storms. It is not 

 my intention to enter into a detailed description of the Light- 

 house, but merely to jot down in haphazard fashion any little 

 items which may serve to interest or amuse the general reader. 

 The usual signs which to the landsman's eye chronicle the 

 passing seasons are here unknown ; but to us, the fish, shell 

 fish, marine plants, migratory birds, etc., constitute an endless 

 calendar. Early this month the flocks of eider and long-tailed 

 ducks, which have been in close attendance since September, 

 have gone housekeeping, and one belated pair of eiders alone 

 remain, evidently as undecided as some of their human 

 contemporaries about taking the important step. The gulls, 

 which have been levying blackmail from the ducks all winter, 

 have almost all disappeared, and we miss their raucous voices 

 at our door, contending for the after-dinner scraps. One 

 would scarcely credit the swallowing capacity of these omni- 

 vorous birds. A piece of ham skin, nine inches long and 



A 



