NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OP THE BELL ROCK. 51 



On the evening of Sunday the 27th our new light was 

 exhibited for the first time, the coveted honour of " first light " 

 falling in the ordinary routine of duty to the writer. The new 

 apparatus a bewildering arrangement of massive glass prisms 

 is in striking contrast with its predecessor, the old reflector 

 system of lighting, a system, by the way, now almost obsolete. 

 The following description of the new light is copied from an 

 engraved plate affixed to the new apparatus: "Combined 

 hyper-radiant and 1st order apparatus, with equiangular diop- 

 tric elements and catadioptric back prisms ; power of red flash 

 and white flash equalised. White and red flashing light, show- 

 ing white and red flashes alternately every half minute, the 

 period being one minute. Designed by Messrs Stevenson, 

 Civil Engineers, Edinburgh. Contractors, Messrs Steven & 

 Struthers, Glasgow, and Messrs Societe Des Etablissements 

 Henry Lepaute, Paris. David A. Stevenson, Engineer to the 

 Board. Apparatus makes one revolution in one minute 1901." 



Occasionally during the progress of the alterations our 

 population, unlike that of Arbroath, increased to a somewhat 

 alarming extent, mounting at times to a grand total of seven 

 all told. Considering that the majority of the population 

 were unaccustomed to life under such " cribbed, cabined, and 

 confined " conditions, it was surprising to witness the cheer- 

 fulness and good humour with which they accepted their 

 sixteen weeks' solitary confinement. At times the resources 

 of our commissariat were taxed to their utmost. Beef, which 

 is stored in our safe on the balcony, and retains its freshness 

 for a fortnight in cold weather, demands a liberal salting at 

 present, otherwise it does become a trifle "gamey," but, on the 

 whole, it is preferable to its relative in tins a relationship, 

 by the way, extremely difficult to prove, and hopelessly so 

 should the label be missing. What though at times a trans- 

 verse section of our loaves disclosed a landscape in cerulean 

 tints undreamt of by the most vivid impressionist, the trans- 

 ference to " hard tack " was accepted with better grace than 

 when a similar move had to be made from the salted meat 

 to the "embalmed commodity." 



