ble at high tide, or
invisible altogether except at low-water. The North and South Foreland
lights in Kent, the Girdleness in Aberdeenshire, and Inchkeith in the
Forth, are examples of the former. The Eddystone, Bell Rock, and
Skerryvore, are well-known examples of the latter, also the Wolf Rock
off the Land's End.

In one of the latter--namely the Bell Rock--I obtained permission, a
good many years ago, from the Commissioners of Northern Lights, to spend
a fortnight for literary purposes--to be imprisoned, in fact, for that
period.

This lighthouse combines within itself more or less of the elements of
all lighthouses. The principles on which it was built are much the same
with those of Skerryvore. It is founded on a tidal rock, is exposed to
the full "fetch" and fury of an open sea, and it has stood for the
greater part of a century exposed to inconceivable and constantly
recurring violence of wind and wave--not, indeed, unshaken, but
altogether undamaged.

The Bell Rock lies on the east of Scotland, off the mouths of the Forth
and Tay, 12 miles from the Forfarshire coast, which is the nearest land.
Its foundation is always under water except for an hour or two at
low-tide. At high tides there are about 12 or 16 feet of water above
the highest ledge of the Bell Rock, which consists of a series of
sandstone ridges. These, at ordinary low-tides, are uncovered to the
extent of between 100 and 200 yards. At neap tides the rock shows only
a few black teeth with sea-weed gums above the surface.

There is a boat which attends upon this lighthouse. On the occasion of
my visit I left Arbroath in it one morning before daybreak and reached
the Rock about dawn. We cast anchor on arriving--not being able to
land, for as yet there _was_ no land! The lighthouse rose out of the
sea like a bulrush out of a pond! No foundation rock was visible, and
the water played about the tower in a fashion that would have knocked
our boat to pieces had we ventured to approach the entrance-door.

In a short time the crest of the rock began to show above the foam.
There was little or no wind, but the ordinary swell of the calm ocean
rolled in upon these rocks, and burst upon them in such a way that the
tower seemed to rise out of a caldron of boiling milk. At last we saw
the three keepers moving amid the surges. They walked on an iron
platform, which, being light and open, and only a few feet above the
waves, was nearly invisible.