VI INTRODUCTION. 



hour. To maintain this supply, a forty gallon tank of polished 

 brass is placed on the lightrooin floor ; and a small force pump, 

 with triple plungers, working in conjunction with the revolving 

 machine, maintains a constant supply of oil, which is kept 

 cool by circulating within an inch of the burning edge of the 

 wicks, the surplus oil returning to the pump-tank. The flash, 

 on being transmitted through the lens, is reckoned to be equal 

 to 60,000 candles ; and the characteristic of the light a red 

 and white flash alternately every half -minute visible twenty 

 miles distant." 



A description of the work of renewal of the lighting 

 apparatus and the erection of a new and enlarged lantern to 

 hold it on the top of the tower, is also given in the Notes \ 

 and no further reference to it is needed than to say that 

 the light, which has the same characteristic as before, is 

 now, by means of the new apparatus, made much stronger 

 and more brilliant. 



Such an erection as this lighthouse standing, as it were, 

 a pillar in the ocean, with a stormy sea raging round it 

 may surely be described as one of the noblest and most 

 wonderful works of man. As no ship has been wrecked 

 on the Rock since the light was first exhibited, it is incal- 

 culable how many valuable lives may have been saved by 

 it. Sir Walter Scott, on the occasion of his visiting the 

 Bell Rock as the guest of the Commissioners on their annual 

 tour of inspection in 1814, gave beautiful expression to his 

 feelings in the following appropriate lines, which he wrote 

 in the Lighthouse Album : 



PHAROS LOQUITUR. 



Far in the bosom of the deep, 



O'er these wild shelves my watch I keep, 



A ruddy gem of changeful light 



Bound on the dusky brow of night ; 



The seaman bids my lustre hail, 



And scorns to strike his timorous sail. 



