NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OP THE BELL ROCK. 93 



of Edinburgh, distant forty miles as the crow flies. Follow- 

 ing the loom of the Fife coast, the twinkling lights of St 

 Andrews next meet the eye, while further up the Firth the 

 two fixed lights of Tayport greet their doubles of Buddonness 

 on the opposite side. Midway between the lights of Tayport 

 and Buddon a single flash every half minute marks the 

 position of the Abertay Lightship. Unlike the other lights 

 here mentioned, the three last named are under the control 

 of the Dundee Corporation. Journeying northwards till 

 almost at right angles to our starting point, the next visible 

 are the lights of Arbroath, twelve miles distant. Viewed 

 through the telescope how dreary and desolate they appear, 

 without the usual accompanying signs of life, a feeble cluster 

 in the vicinity of the harbour dwindling away to the Victoria 

 Park in a solitary line. Further north the occulting light 

 of Montrose Ness catches the eye with its thirty seconds of 

 light followed by thirty seconds' darkness. Northwards still, 

 twenty-five miles from us, the light of Tod Head, near Bervie, 

 limits our view in that direction. Only in exceptionally clear 

 weather is it visible from here, and then only from the eleva- 

 tion of our balcony. The characteristics of this light are six 

 white flashes in quick succession during fifteen seconds, fol- 

 lowed by fifteen seconds' darkness. Returning to our start- 

 ing point, the Isle of May, and journeying till thirty miles 

 due south from here, our view is again limited by St Abb's 

 Head, showing a white flash every ten seconds. About mid- 

 way between the latter light and the " May " the light of 

 Barns Ness, near Dunbar, is, like St Abb's and Tod Head, 

 only occasionally seen, its characteristic being a triple white 

 flash every thirty seconds. The presence of these lights makes 

 our coasts as safely navigable by night as by day, and the 

 demand is still for more a fact which drew from a facetious 

 old "salt" the remark that "sailors nowadays want a hand- 

 rail along the coast." 



