o your hand this,
which prayeth for your immediate assistance to fetch us off before next
spring, or we fear we shall perish--our water all gone, and our fire
quite gone, and our house in a most melancholy manner. I doubt not but
you will fetch us from here as fast as possible: we can be got off at
some part of the tide almost any weather. I need say no more, but
remain your distressed humble servant.

"H. WHITESIDE."

"We were distressed in a gale of wind upon the 13th of January, since
which have not been able to keep any light, but we could not have kept
any light above sixteen nights longer for want of oil and candles,
which makes us murmur, and think we are forgotten.

"EDWARD EDWARDS.
"G. ADAMS.
"J. PRICE.

"P.S.--We doubt not, whoever takes up this, will be so merciful as to
cause it to be sent to Thomas Williams, Esq., Trelethin, near St.
David's, Wales."

At one time, during a very stormy winter, the Smalls lighthouse-keepers
were cut off from communication with the mainland for four months.
Vessels had tried to reach them, but had been driven back by the
violence of the weather. Once, however, when a ship had gone near
enough to get a sight of the Smalls, it was reported that a man was
seen standing in the upper gallery, and that a flag of distress was
flying near him. When at last a fisherman succeeded in reaching the
rock, he found that one of the keepers was dead, and the other had
securely fixed the corpse in an upright position in the gallery, that
the body might be preserved, and he himself not injured by contact with
it. This, and a similar event that happened on the Eddystone, caused
better arrangements to be made; and in future, more than two men were
placed in lighthouses likely to be exposed to circumstances of equal
danger.

Another marvellous lighthouse is that erected by Robert Stevenson on
the Bell Rock. The most ancient light which Scotland can boast is that
of the Isle of May. The tower is very old and weather-beaten, and
bears date 1635. At Grass Island, and also at North Ronaldshay, lights
were kindled in 1789. In 1794, Robert Stevenson saw the Skerries
lighthouse completed. He also put lights on Start Point; and for the
better lighting of the dangerous shore, changed the North Ronaldshay
lighthouse into a beacon.

But round about the light on the Bell Rock more romance centres. This
rock is a very perilous one, lying eleven miles off the coast of
Forfarshire