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 light-room, I felt it shaking
and waving, not with the tremor of the Bell Rock, but with the
WAVING OF A TREE! This the light-keepers 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 nettle-soup 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