Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 4).djvu/343

 —decidedly cosy and scrupulously clean, with a specially made cooking-range and every domestic convenience. Although the granite walls are exposed (as in every room), their bareness is relieved by shelves and a dresser, containing pots, pans and dishes; while a bookcase filled with readable volumes (supplied by the Trinity House, and frequently changed) adds to the general appearance of comfort. On the hob stands a kettle of abnormal dimensions, and a window is converted for the nonce into a meat safe, the suspended legs of mutton kept fresh by exposure to the cool air. Here I am shown some interesting relics of the Smeaton lighthouse, viz., a tea-canister (probably a century old, and still in use) and some tools of little utility.

Still ascending, we reach the low-light room, devoted mainly to an apparatus for giving a white fixed subsidiary light, the rays from two powerful argand burners with reflectors being sent through the opposite window at night, to mark some dangerous rocks known as the Hand Deeps about three and a half miles distant. The medicine chest also finds a place here. The eighth compartment is the bedroom, having five berths (two above and three below) with cretonne curtains, and below are cupboards for clothes; the two speaking-tubes fixed on the wall are connected with the lantern and low-light room respectively, so that the keeper on night duty can easily communicate with his sleeping mates should an accident