The position of the Rock, at the gateway to Canadian ports, makes it particularly dangerous to vessels plying in these waters, and in 1869 a lighthouse was erected on its summit. While constructing the light keeper’s dwelling and storehouses, the Government built two cranes—one on the northerly, the other on the southerly side of the Rock—for use in hoisting supplies. There are also now three other places where by means of ladders and ropes one may ascend. The top of the Rock was thus made more accessible, and the birds were consequently less protected from the attacks of fishermen. It is said, also, that the light keepers did not appreciate the companionship of the Gannets, and made special efforts to drive the birds from the nesting site which they so long had held undisturbed. [Illustration: 82. A corner of the Rock.] Hence, when Mr. C. J. Maynard visited the Rock in 1872, he found that the colony of Gannets on its summit contained only five thousand birds, which, nine years later, Mr. William Brewster reports had decreased to fifty pairs. Mr. Brewster also noted a fresh cause for the destruction of the eggs of the birds nesting on the sides of the Rock, in the shape of a cannon which had been introduced shortly before his visit. He writes: “At each discharge the frightened Murres fly from the Rock in clouds, nearly every sitting bird taking its egg into the air between its thighs and dropping it after flying a few yards. This was repeatedly observed during our visit, and more than once a perfect shower of eggs fell into the water about our boat.” While the birds have become comparatively accustomed to the report of the guncotton bomb, which has succeeded the cannon, large numbers still leave the Rock each time a bomb is exploded, so that it continues to be a means of destroying not only eggs but young birds, which are carried off the narrow ledges by the precipitous flight of their parents. Since that date (1881) Cory, Lucas, Palmer, Bishop, and doubtless others, have visited Bird Rock, but with the entire disappearance of the Gannets from its summit no attempt has been made to estimate the further decrease in the number of its feathered inhabitants. In spite of the great diminution which this outline of its history shows to have occurred in Bird Rock’s population, the casual observer of to-day will believe with difficulty that it could ever have been more densely inhabited. It is still one of the ornithological wonders of our Atlantic coast, and, comparatively speaking, as well worth visiting as in the time of Audubon. Writing now in the light of experience, I anticipate a return to Bird Rock with even more enthusiasm than I felt when after the discouraging uncertainties of delay we boarded the Sea Gem on the afternoon of July 23d, and with a fair wind set sail for Bryon, where we were to anchor for the night.