The Lighthouse | Page 2

been said, was
still heaving with a mighty swell, from the effects of the recent
elemental conflict.
"D'ye see the breakers noo, Davy?" enquired the ill-favoured man, who
pulled the aft oar.
"Ay, and hear them, too," said Davy Spink, ceasing to row, and looking
over his shoulder towards the seaward horizon.
"Yer een and lugs are better than mine, then," returned the ill-favoured
comrade, who answered, when among his friends, to the name of Big
Swankie, otherwise, and more correctly, Jock Swankie. "Od! I believe
ye're right," he added, shading his heavy red brows with his heavier and
redder hand, "that is the rock, but a man wad need the een o' an eagle to
see onything in the face o' sik a bleezin' sun. Pull awa', Davy, we'll hae
time to catch a bit cod or a haddy afore the rock's bare."
Influenced by these encouraging hopes, the stout pair urged their boat
in the direction of a thin line of snow-white foam that lay apparently
many miles away, but which was in reality not very far distant.
By degrees the white line expanded in size and became massive, as
though a huge breaker were rolling towards them; ever and anon jets of
foam flew high into the air from various parts of the mass, like smoke
from a cannon's mouth. Presently, a low continuous roar became
audible above the noise of the oars; as the boat advanced, the swells
from the southeast could be seen towering upwards as they neared the

foaming spot, gradually changing their broad-backed form, and coming
on in majestic walls of green water, which fell with indescribable
grandeur into the seething caldron. No rocks were visible, there was no
apparent cause for this wild confusion in the midst of the otherwise
calm sea. But the fishermen knew that the Bell Rock was underneath
the foam, and that in less than an hour its jagged peaks would be left
uncovered by the falling tide.
As the swell of the sea came in from the eastward, there was a belt of
smooth water on the west side of the rock. Here the fishermen cast
anchor, and, baiting their hand-lines, began to fish. At first they were
unsuccessful, but before half an hour had elapsed, the cod began to
nibble, and Big Swankie ere long hauled up a fish of goodly size. Davy
Spink followed suit, and in a few minutes a dozen fish lay spluttering in
the bottom of the boat.
"Time's up noo," said Swankie, coiling away his line.
"Stop, stop, here's a wallupper," cried Davy, who was an excitable man;
"we better fish a while langer--bring the cleek, Swankie, he's ower big
to--noo, lad, cleek him! that's it!--Oh-o-o-o!"
The prolonged groan with which Davy brought his speech to a sudden
termination was in consequence of the line breaking and the fish
escaping, just as Swankie was about to strike the iron hook into its side.
"Hech! lad, that was a guid ane," said the disappointed man with a sigh;
"but he's awa'."
"Ay," observed Swankie, "and we must awa' too, so up anchor, lad. The
rock's lookin' oot o' the sea, and time's precious."
The anchor was speedily pulled up, and they rowed towards the rock,
the ragged edges of which were now visible at intervals in the midst of
the foam which they created.
At low tide an irregular portion of the Bell Rock, less than a hundred
yards in length, and fifty yards in breadth, is uncovered and left

exposed for two or three hours. It does not appear in the form of a
single mass or islet, but in a succession of serrated ledges of various
heights, between and amongst which the sea flows until the tide has
fallen pretty low. At full ebb the rock appears like a dark islet, covered
with seaweed, and studded with deep pools of water, most of which are
connected with the sea by narrow channels running between the ledges.
The highest part of the rock does not rise more than seven feet above
the level of the sea at the lowest tide.
To enter one of the pools by means of the channels above referred to is
generally a matter of difficulty, and often of extreme danger, as the
swell of the sea, even in calm weather, bursts over these ledges with
such violence as to render the channels at times impassable. The utmost
caution, therefore, is necessary.
Our fishermen, however, were accustomed to land there occasionally in
search of the remains of wrecks, and knew their work well. They
approached the rock on the lee side, which was, as has been said, to the
westward. To a spectator viewing them from any point but from the
boat itself, it would have appeared that the