THE HIGHLAND LIGHT. 
159 
on, the keeper said that the light-house should have been 
erected half a mile farther south, where the coast begins 
to bend, and where the light could be seen at the same 
time with the Nauset Lights, and distinguished from 
them. They now talk of building one there. It hap¬ 
pens that the present one is the more useless now, so 
near the extremity of the Cape, because other light¬ 
houses have since been erected there. 
Among the many regulations of the Light-house 
Board, hanging against the wall here, many of them 
excellent, perhaps, if there were a regiment stationed 
here to attend to them, there is one requiring the 
keeper to keep an account of the number of vessels 
which pass his light during the day. But there are a 
hundred vessels in sight at once, steering in all direc¬ 
tions, many on the very verge of the horizon, and he 
must have more eyes than Argus, and be a good deal 
farther-sighted, to tell which are passing his light. It 
is an employment in some respects best suited to the 
habits of the gulls which coast up and down here, and 
circle over the sea. 
I was told by the next keeper, that on the 8th of 
June following, a particularly clear and beautiful morn¬ 
ing, he rose about half an hour before sunrise, and 
having a little time to spare, for his custom was to 
extinguish his lights at sunrise, walked down toward 
the shore to see what he might find. When he got to 
the edge of the bank he looked up, and, to his astonish¬ 
ment, saw the sun rising, and already part way above 
the horizon. Thinking that his clock was wrong, he 
made haste back, and though it was still too early by the 
clock, extinguished his lamps, and when he had got 
through and come down, he looked out the window, and, 
