92 NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BELL ROCK. 



the powerful electric light of the Isle of May flings its 

 quadruple flash with startling brilliancy, a faint bar of light 

 travelling athwart the base of our tower with each flash 

 similar to what would be produced by a lighted carriage 

 passing at a few yards distance. This light is said to be of 

 three million candle-power and is of the arc type, using carbons 

 one and a-half inch in diameter. To a stranger entering the 

 light-room while the light is in action a somewhat disagree- 

 able sound is heard. This is occasioned by the tremendous 

 current bridging the arc between the carbons, and for all the 

 world resembles the sound made by a circular saw passing 

 through exceedingly knotty timber. The Bass Bock emerges 

 from the right shoulder of the " May," and prevents us seeing 

 the light lately erected on its south side. A little to the right 

 of the " May," the eye encounters the fixed white light of the 

 North Carr Lightship, three miles off Fife Ness, and distant 

 from us nine miles. This light consists of six small argand 

 lamps, set in silvered reflectors and enclosed in a lantern en- 

 circling the mast half-way up. Colza oil was the illuminant 

 used until recently in the North Carr Lightship, as it was 

 formerly in all the Northern lighthouses, where it had ousted 

 the more expensive sperm, but which in turn has been super- 

 seded by paraffin. The lamps are hung on gimbals to obviate 

 as much as possible the pitching and rolling of the vessel. 

 With due allowance for the exaggeration that a penny piece 

 placed on the deck shows "heads" or "tails" at the vessel's 

 own sweet will, one can understand that the motion in bad 

 weather must be considerable. Table guards, though retain- 

 ing the dishes on the table, do not in the slightest restrain 

 the liberty of their contents, which find lodgment as they list. 

 On such occasions the men resort to the expedient of squatting 

 on the deck of their quarters with their backs against the 

 bulkhead and their outstretched feet firmly opposed to those 

 of their opposite neighbour, and only thus, plate in hand, are 

 they enabled to discuss their soup with any degree of certainty. 

 Further to the right, in line with the town of Crail land- 

 locked from us a dull red glare in the sky marks the position 



