of no fewer than five vessels, with many lifeless bodies.

During successive years the commissioners erected a number of
lighthouses, and laboured with anxious care to render them as
efficient as possible. In some cases where the nature of the
accommodation at the lighthouse stations would permit, a guard-room
was provided for pilots, and shipwrecked mariners were lodged, and, in
necessitous cases, they have even been allowed a sum of money to
clothe and carry them to their respective homes. 'In this way,' says
Mr. Stevenson, 'it has not unfrequently fallen to the lot of the
keepers of the northern lighthouses, to save the lives of perishing
seamen, to succour many poor fishermen and pilots, as well as the
half-starved and unlucky individuals of water-parties, when driven by
stress of weather to these lone places of abode for safety and
shelter. In these varied forms, it will not be too much to suppose,
that the practice of protecting the navigator in distress, which is
said to have formed a chief part of the design of the fire-towers and
nautical colleges of the ancients, is thus in some measure restored.'

CHAPTER VII.

THE BELL-ROCK LIGHTHOUSE AS A TYPE OF SCOTTISH LIGHTHOUSES.

History of the Inch-Cape or Bell-Rock Lighthouse as a Type
of the Northern Lighthouses--Position and Dangerous
Character of the Bell Rock--Ballad of Sir Ralph the
Rover--Proposal to erect a Lighthouse--Mr. Robert Stevenson
selected as Engineer--Survey of the Rock--Exhibition of a
Floating Light--Preparations for the Lighthouse--First
Season on the Rock--Alarming Situation of the Engineer and
Men--Effects of the Stormy Sea on the Rock--Erection of
Beacon--Winter Employment--The Second Season--A new Tender
employed--Praam-boats and Stone-lighters--Progress of the
Work--Remarkable appearance of the Rock--Foundation Stone
laid--First continuous Course of Masonry--Its Contents--Third
Season--Progress of the Work--Winter Operations--Fourth
Season--The Beacon used as a Dwelling--Its Interior
described--The Engineer's Cabin--The Lighthouse nearly
finished--Mr. Smeaton's Daughter visits the Works--Last
Stone laid--Light advertized--Lighthouse described--Action
of the Sea and of Stormy Weather upon the Lighthouse--Internal
Economy of the Lighthouse--Arrangements on Shore--Signals--Curious
Accident--The Carr Rock Beacon.