nted
dispositions imaginable.

Tuesday, 13th Nov.

From Saturday the 10th till Tuesday the 13th, the wind had been from
N.E. blowing a heavy gale; but to-day, the weather having greatly
moderated, Captain Taylor, who now commanded the _Smeaton_, sailed at
two o'clock a.m. for the Bell Rock. At five the floating light was
hailed and found to be all well. Being a fine moonlight morning, the
seamen were changed from the one ship to the other. At eight, the
_Smeaton_ being off the rock, the boats were manned, and taking a supply
of water, fuel, and other necessaries, landed at the western side, when
Mr. Reid and Mr. Fortune were found in good health and spirits.

Mr. Reid stated that during the late gales, particularly on Friday, the
30th, the wind veering from S.E. to N.E., both he and Mr. Fortune
sensibly felt the house tremble when particular seas struck, about the
time of high-water; the former observing that it was a tremor of that
sort which rather tended to convince him that everything about the
building was sound, and reminded him of the effect produced when a good
log of timber is struck sharply with a mallet; but, with every
confidence in the stability of the building, he nevertheless confessed
that, in so forlorn a situation, they were not insensible to those
emotions which, he emphatically observed, "made a man look back upon his
former life."

Friday, 1st Feb.

The day, long wished for, on which the mariner was to see a light
exhibited on the Bell Rock at length arrived. Captain Wilson, as usual,
hoisted the float's lanterns to the topmast on the evening of the 1st of
February; but the moment that the light appeared on the rock, the crew,
giving three cheers, lowered them, and finally extinguished the lights.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] This is, of course, the tradition commemorated by Southey in
his ballad of "The Inchcape Bell." Whether true or not, it points to
the fact that from the infancy of Scottish navigation, the seafaring
mind had been fully alive to the perils of this reef. Repeated
attempts had been made to mark the place with beacons, but all
efforts were unavailing (one such beacon having been carried away
within eight days of its erection) until Robert Stevenson conceived
and carried out the idea of the stone tower.

[12] The particular event which concentrated Mr. Stevenson's
attention on the problem of the Bell Rock was the memorable gale of
Decemb