NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BELL ROCK. 25 



channels, with jutting rocks so close on either side that an 

 oar's length deviation would entail serious disaster. A power- 

 ful searchlight has of recent years been added to the equip- 

 ment of the relieving steamer, and is of much advantage in 

 the guidance of the boats, though it has the peculiarity of 

 grossly exaggerating the tempestuous appearance of the sea. 

 The sea, which on the evening of the relief was comparatively 

 calm, was the next day rolling down on us like a solid wall, 

 and viewed from the balcony in all its magnificent grandeur 

 what a puny, frail, unstable structure our habitation seemed 

 in comparison. Each succeeding wave seemed imbued with 

 the sole motive of accomplishing our destruction, and as they 

 struck and sliced away on either side in two mighty crescents 

 of hissing foam, blinded our kitchen windows seventy feet 

 above the rock. Clashing together again to leeward with a 

 roar, as if incensed at our stubborn resistance, they drive their 

 way furiously along the remaining portion of the reef in foam- 

 capped ridges, and where the cross seas meet them the spray 

 is flung high in the air from their points of intersection. The 

 appearance of the reef at this stage, as seen from our elevation, 

 is of a number of rectangular enclosures, each about the size 

 of an ordinary bowling-green, with well-defined walls, the 

 whole under a heavy coating of snow, with each corner marked 

 by a snow-laden tree. At high water the sea having flowed 

 about twelve or fifteen feet on the building by that time the 

 waves, generally unbroken, slip past harmlessly ; an hour 

 before or after high water is when we experience the heaviest 

 shocks, for then the depth of water is such that the waves are 

 arrested by the rock when close to the tower, and their whole 

 volume flung violently against the building. The effect of 

 such weather on the tower must be felt to be understood. 

 The nearest description I can give of the seas striking is as if 

 a log of wood were hurled by each sea, striking end on, and 

 a short, sharp, tremulous motion sufficient to rattle the 

 crockery in the kitchen cupboard is imparted to the tower 

 by each impact. This tremor is more particularly felt when 

 the gale subsides and the heavy swell sets in, for when 



