MARCH 1903. 



TRADITIONALLY correct, the advent of this month was decidedly 

 leonine, and its exit as certainly lamb-like ; but between these 

 periods, though a few really beautiful days could be credited 

 to the latter symbol of peacefulness, the lion was largely in 

 the ascendant. Borne on the off-shore wind comes the odour 

 of heather not the fragrant perfume one usually associates 

 with this sweet-smelling plant, but the smoky incense con- 

 sequent on moor-burning and at night the higher levels of 

 the coast line exhibit lights which are certainly not recognised 

 in the Mariners' Sailing Directions. 



Over a score of steam trawlers have been busy in our 

 neighbourhood all the month. Sunday or Saturday is all 

 the same to them ; they are at it night and day, and the 

 weather must be bad indeed to detain them in port. Often 

 they are seen passing here burying themselves to the fore- 

 mast in the seas on their way to the fishing grounds, perhaps 

 twenty miles outside of us. The Rock seems to be a recog- 

 nised stage in their journey ; for, whenever abreast of it, 

 over goes their log, and a compass course is laid for the 

 distant banks. Here, far outside the three-mile limit, the 

 presence of the Brenda or the Minna * causes no alarm ; and, 

 providing their numbers are correctly exposed, receive no 

 interference from these coasting policemen. A few summers 

 ago, one of these same trawlers, while on her way out from 

 Dundee one Sunday, surprised us by driving right up on the 

 reef in broad daylight, a hundred yards from the tower. 

 Fortunately, the sea was like glass at the time, otherwise 

 the consequences must have been disastrous. The tide being 

 on the ebb, their attempts to back off were unsuccessful ; and 

 there they remained hard and fast from one o'clock till six in 

 the evening, when a passing trawler succeeded in towing them 

 off, evidently none the worse of their brief acquaintance with 

 the Bell Rock. During their detention, the crew paid us a 

 * Fishery Board cruisers. 



