24« REPORTS OF MEETINGS FOR 1911 



lepers applied, or made their appeal, for the alms of the Church, 

 to Northfield, overlooking the village of St. Abb's ; and 

 following a bee-line through the fields, which skirted the East 

 end of an artificial lake recently constructed in the slack 

 between Petticowick and Burnmouth, they ascended the grassy 

 slope leading to the lighthouse of St. Abb's, situated on a 

 promontory 310 feet above sea-level. Through the courtesy 

 of the Northern Lighthouse Board, permission was obtained 



to view the interior under the direction of the 

 St. Abb's principal light-keeper. On the occasion of their 

 Lighthouse, last visit to the Head,'' the Club were indebted 



to Dr. Stevenson Macadam, Edinburgh, for an 

 account of the introduction of paraffin oil as an illuminant 

 into lighthouses, experiments of his own, under the instructions 

 of the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, having estab- 

 lished both the safety of its use, and the actual saving of cost 

 when compared with that of colza oil. The flashing point of 

 the oil now employed, however, being 140 degrees Fahr., 

 renders it a safer illuminant than that sold for domestic 

 purposes, whose flashing point is ordinarily 73 degrees Fahr. 

 As the consumption of oil in the Holophotal Light erected at 

 St. Abb's amounts to 12| gills per hour, a large number of 

 cisterns, containing 95 gallons each, have been ranged round the 

 space beneath the platform, and for the delivery of the yearly 

 supply an excellent road has been engineei'ed from the jetty 

 at Petticowick to the lighthouse buildings. Very recently 

 the Fog-horn, which is driven by an engine on the summit 

 of the cliff, has been rendered more effective by the trans- 

 ference of the siren to a point below the lighthouse and 

 overhanging the sea, thereby forming a unique object on the 

 coast-line, as may be seen from a photograph taken during 

 the meeting (Plate XII). While waiting their turn to examine 

 the lamp-room, members amused themselves with a baby gull, 

 which the keepers had secured for a pet. Their nesting stations 

 are situated chiefly to the West of the lighthouse, where 

 large colonies of Guillemots (Uria trdile) are also located on 

 the Cleaver Rock, Foul Carr, Skelly and Flot Carr. 



1 Ber. Nat. Club, Vol. xv., p 217. 



