FORCE OF THE SEA. 



and the light is seen twenty-three miles off, on either 

 side of Dunnet Head. 



Even here there seem to have been recent slips, for 

 there are long slopes of rock at the bottom overgrown 

 with ferns and greenery. The sea is constantly washing 

 and grinding away the red sandstone and slates, so that, 

 in course of time, the lighthouse will have to be removed 

 farther inland. 



Notwithstanding the height of the cliffs, the sea, 

 when driving strongly from the west, rushes right up 

 the face of the rocks, and dashes over the lighthouse, 

 sometimes breaking the glass with the stones which it 

 carries with it. Such is the prodigious force of the wind 

 and the sea united, that the very rock itself seems to 

 tremble, while the lighthouse shakes from top to bottom. 



We are now in the Pentland Firth, and the waves are 

 rolling strong ^from the eastward. The wind and the 

 waters dash about the little ship, and she tacks and bears 

 round under the shelter of the headland. But not before 

 her decks have been well drenched by the billows. She 

 has now to make headway against the tide, which is 

 rushing into the Pentland Firth at the rate of some ten 

 miles an hour. At last, retracing her pathway under the 

 rocks, Eough Head is passed ; a calm comes on ; the ship 

 makes a tack across the bay ; and at length Dwarwick 

 Head is passed, and the buoyant little yacht makes her 

 way into Castletown harbour, from whence she set out. 



We have thought it necessary to give this account of 

 Dunnet Head, because it was so often the scene of 

 Robert Dick's explorations. Sometimes also, Hugh 



