Fresident's Address. 315 



stands the old beacon tower, now adapted for the conveniences 

 of day-and-night-shelter for the pilots who make use of the 

 central position of the Isle of May to watch the approach 

 of inward-bound trading vessels, and which is now more 

 generally known as The Pilot House. It is a rectilinear 

 whitewashed block of masonry, some thirty feet square, or 

 thereby, with a flat roof, upon which, in former times, the 

 beacon-fires were kept constantly burning. 



By following a narrow, trimly-kept, pathway towards the 

 N.E., and descending to a level of about 55 feet above the 

 sea, one reaches the low lighthouse, which serves, in combi- 

 nation with the higher lantern, to warn mariners of the 

 position of the dangerous Carr Eock, which lies off Fife E"ess, 

 and is barely uncovered at low tide, extending, as I am in- 

 formed by Mr J. Eattray, to about 72 feet in length by 23 

 feet in breadth.^ 



Below the lighthouse, to the S.W., is a cove or indenta- 

 tion in the otherwise almost uninterrupted cliff, known as 

 the Mill Door, and above the Mill Door, and at an elevation 

 of about 50 feet, is a partly artificial lake or dam of brackish 

 and intensely green water, 6 or 8 chains in length, charged 

 with innumerable confervas. It is abundantly inhabited by 

 eels, in the same way that I have found other lakes in similar 

 positions on islands of the west coast. I failed to discover 

 if it contains any three-spined Stickle-backs, or other fish. 

 This lake lies between precipitous banks, nearly 100 feet in 

 height ; that on the west side broken, and clothed in luxuri- 

 ant patches of sea-pink and other insular vegetation; but 

 that on the east side much barer and stonier. This is a 

 favourite valley for bird-migrants, owing to its sheltered 

 position in easterly winds. 



Close to the lake, and a few feet higher, in fact placed 

 upon the watershed between E. and W., stand the farm- 

 buildings, byres, barn, and other works connected with the 

 lighthouse service, where motive-power and machinery has, 

 since this was written, been established for lighting up the 

 lantern by electricity. It remains to be seen what effect this 

 change will have upon the migration of birds. 



1 Low Lighthouse was built in 1844, "Key of Firth of Forth," p. 23. 



