NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BELL ROCK _Edinburgh: Printed by George Waterston & Sons_ FOR DAVID DOUGLAS LONDON, SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO., LIMITED CAMBRIDGE, MACMILLAN AND BOWES GLASGOW, JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BELL ROCK BY J. M. CAMPBELL WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JAMES MURDOCH LATE SECRETARY TO THE BOARD OF NORTHERN LIGHTHOUSES [Illustration] EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS, CASTLE STREET 1904 PREFACE. These desultory notes were originally undertaken at the instigation of an invalid friend, desirous of a closer acquaintance with our lonely environments. At the termination of a nine years’ residence on the Rock, I have been advised to publish them in book form, and being fortunate in securing the services of a generous publisher, they are now collected from the columns of the local press and issued in this form in the hope that they may interest the general reader. I have to thank the Editors of _The Arbroath Guide_ and _Chambers’s Journal_ for their courtesy. J. M. CAMPBELL, _Assistant Lightkeeper_. BELL ROCK LIGHTHOUSE, _May 1904_. INTRODUCTION. In consequence probably of my connection of more than fifty years with the Northern Lighthouse Board, and of the almost equally long service of my father, I have been requested, and with much diffidence have complied with the request, to write, by way of Introduction to these very interesting and instructive “Notes from the Bell Rock,” a few words regarding Lighthouses, and a short account of the Northern Lighthouse Service and its Lightkeepers. My love for that service, and the esteem I have for those responsible and patient watchmen of the night, whose duty it is to keep their lights burning to guard the mariner from some of the dangers to which he is exposed, and to guide him on his way over the vasty deep, may possibly enable me to say something to interest readers of the Notes in a service whose appropriate motto is “IN SALUTEM OMNIUM.”