flowed the buoy
got almost under water, and little more than the ring appeared at the
surface. When the mate and Scott were in the act of making the hawser
fast to the ring, the chain got suddenly disentangled at the bottom,
and the large buoy, measuring about seven feet in length by three in
diameter in the middle, vaulted upwards with such force that it upset
the boat, which instantly filled with water. The mate with great
difficulty succeeded in getting hold of the gunwale, but Scott seemed
to have been stunned by the buoy, for he lay motionless for a few
minutes on the water, apparently unable to make any exertion to save
himself, for he did not attempt to lay hold of the oars or thwarts
which floated near him.

A boat was at once sent to the rescue, and the mate was picked up,
but Scott sank before it reached the spot.

This poor lad was a great favourite in the service, and for a time
his melancholy end cast a gloom over the little community at the
Bell Rock. The circumstances of the case were also peculiarly
distressing in reference to the boy's mother, for her husband had
been for three years past confined in a French prison, and her son
had been the chief support of the family. In order in some measure to
make up to the poor woman for the loss of the monthly aliment
regularly allowed her by her lost son, it was suggested that a
younger brother of the deceased might be taken into the service. This
appeared to be a rather delicate proposition, but it was left to the
landing-master to arrange according to circumstances. Such was the
resignation, and at the same time the spirit of the poor woman, that
she readily accepted the proposal, and in a few days the younger
Scott was actually afloat in the place of his brother. On this
distressing case being represented to the Board, the Commissioners
granted an annuity of L5 to the lad's mother.

The painter who represents only the sunny side of nature portrays a
one-sided, and therefore a false view of things, for, as everyone
knows, nature is not all sunshine. So, if an author makes his
pen-and-ink pictures represent only the amusing and picturesque view
of things, he does injustice to his subject.

We have no pleasure, good reader, in saddening you by accounts of
"fatal accidents", but we have sought to convey to you a correct
impression of things, and scenes, and incidents at the building of
the Bell Rock Lighthouse, as they actually were, and looked, and
occurre