ndfather in his diary depicting the nature of their excellence in
one happily descriptive phrase, when he remarks that Captain Soutar had
landed "the small stores and nine casks of oil _with all the activity of
a smuggler_." And it was one thing to land, another to get on board
again. I have here a passage from the diary, where it seems to have been
touch-and-go. "I landed at Tarbetness, on the eastern side of the point,
in _a mere gale or blast of wind_ from west-south-west, at 2 p.m. It
blew so fresh that the captain, in a kind of despair, went off to the
ship, leaving myself and the steward ashore. While I was in the
lightroom, I felt it shaking and waving, not with the tremor of the Bell
Rock, but with the _waving of a tree_! This the lightkeepers seemed to
be quite familiar to, the principal keeper remarking that 'it was very
pleasant,' perhaps meaning interesting or curious. The captain worked
the vessel into smooth water with admirable dexterity, and I got on
board again about 6 p.m. from the other side of the point." But not even
the dexterity of Soutar could prevail always; and my grandfather must at
times have been left in strange berths and with but rude provision. I
may instance the case of my father, who was storm-bound three days upon
an islet, sleeping in the uncemented and unchimneyed houses of the
islanders, and subsisting on a diet of nettlesoup and lobsters.

The name of Soutar has twice escaped my pen, and I feel I owe him a
vignette. Soutar first attracted notice as mate of a praam at the Bell
Rock, and rose gradually to be captain of the _Regent_. He was active,
admirably skilled in his trade, and a man incapable of fear. Once, in
London, he fell among a gang of confidence-men, naturally deceived by
his rusticity and his prodigious accent. They plied him with drink--a
hopeless enterprise, for Soutar could not be made drunk; they proposed
cards, and Soutar would not play. At last, one of them, regarding him
with a formidable countenance, inquired if he were not frightened? "I'm
no' very easy fleyed," replied the captain. And the rooks withdrew
after some easier pigeon. So many perils shared, and the partial
familiarity of so many voyages, had given this man a stronghold in my
grandfather's estimation; and there is no doubt but he had the art to
court and please him with much hypocritical skill. He usually dined on
Sundays in the cabin. He used to come down daily after dinner for a
glass of port or wh