| Show SECLUDED SHETLAND it is just possible to get beyond the reach of the telegraphic wire and the desire of doing so may perhaps lend an additional attraction to the most interesting te excursion to be made in shetland writes H D traill in the london telegraph A mile or so out at sea beyond the most northerly promontory of this tast most northerly island of the archipelago a stack of rock as precipitous as the cone of the Matt erhorn lifts its frowning head above the waters of the north sea viewing it from a few miles distance you would say that it scarce supplied foothold for a seagull but looking at it more intently you will see a thin white streak as thin and white as a peeled willow wand planted on its summit it is the lighthouse of the flugga the furthest outpost of that great army of beacons which wage their silent warfare night by night with the seas that besiege our coasts nowhere have we carried the war so far into the country or affronted him with more dari daring challenge here on this jagged fang of rock and rising sixty feet above the apex of the sher sheer precipice on which it has been so miraculously erected the dunst light keeps watch and ward amid a world of the stormiest waters that rage anywhere around our tempest stefn pest beaten isles it was a comparatively calm day when we put out from th dk lighthouse station at the head of berra frith to visit the Fluit flugga gall but positive assurance of a landings landing on the rock was not nor is it ever to be had bad la IA what to a landsman would seem halcyon weather and on a day when the caves and cliffs of the mainland are bein being 9 washed by only such a tide as moving seems asleep too lull full for sound g or foam boarn it ift mAny a time found impossible for would be visitors to land that softly lapping sea whose waves have hardly hard strength to curl and break upon the shingle may be surging in a heavy mounded swe swell llover over the dripping boulders of the rock aud and breaking in surf against its iron walls stilt still there ther ewas was good d hope for us today so far as all expert forecasts went and heater better hope still in im that we Q had the medical officer of the island with us in the boat the time was near at hand for one of his bis periodical visits of inspection to th the t lighthouse andie had seized the opportunity of benning jok our expedition and taking ing advantage of the favorable weather which had bad tempted us to embark upon it it takes a pretty bad day of course to keep the ordinary relief parties ashore they habitually come and go in states of the sea in which hired boatmen would decline the responsibility of attempting to land the casual tourist but the doctor who had doubtless discharged his inspecting duty on many a day of dirty weather would assuredly be delivered on the rock this afternoon if delivery were at all al I 1 practical practicable ab abe e and there seemed a far fair c nance cnance that a point might be strained in our favor as his companions so that we started on our enterprise with exceptionally fair promise of bringing it to a successful issue it is a tough four mile row to the flugga from the ji lighthouse station stati at the head bead of the air our three oars own men faveto to bend their backs to it with a wm will the ahmes side of 61 us bol devas too me widens ami ast dst at but alter some forty minutes steady pulling we find ourselves on the open sea to the right lies the headland of if Sax aford honeycombed with booming caves on the left hand frowns the tremendous bluff of herman ess twin heights which figure in norse legend as the respective abodes of two warring giants whose missiles flung at each other are supposed to be lying to this day at the foot of either cliff in the form of gigantic sea washed boulders even as the rocks with which pelted belted elysses still lie off aci reale on the sicilian coast but we are now clear of land and the pyramid of the flugga surmounted by its slender spire of stone is in full view at last we bear to the northwestward and our boats begin to dance upon the waves with a briskness that warns us how bow delusive is the calm of all those deeply indented friths faiths that open out upon this ever unquiet sea As the water slaps and buffets our advancing bows the discouraging cou raging thought that we may be destined to have our journey for nothing irresistibly recurs but it seems that we are in luck for many years past as we learned after afterward wara it had been found impossible for any visiting parties from the shore to effect a landing but when we reached the northeastern face of the rock and had turned into the natural harbor which it forms with its lesser sister the landlubber could have seen that all was right just for the ino moment ment however the mere sight of this extraordinary LITTLE HAVEN surely the wildest and stran strangest gost ever constructed from the masonry of nature leaves no room for thought of agy thing else on our tight to t the e altrude of feet towers the black precipice t on which the lighthouse stands its sheer face terraced cd from base to summit it wah nights flights of steep stone sone steps damped i and JA mort iced into the mojid gohd rock and 00 nr everywhere wi h a single gingle iron handrail hand rail over against it to our 14 le it at i a distance 0 of some aonie acty aroma or saty ya yarda from its companion and about hill half ts X stature rises the little flugga nd about midway roid way between the tayo tap pr project 01 e a long and jagged blade blada of rock to 0 the side of which ia is fixed the iron I 1 landing ladder the deep blue black datil water ler e ft Is s heaving jn in sur fless mou mounds ads aa into to the grim little haven and feeling raqul round A xer its wave worn walls unbroken so that it is an easy scramble amble up the ru rungs nis of of the anding ladder on to the rock beav where two of the three 9 ugh abt t keeper te ceide us with that broa broad smile of pi greeting with which these sea bound pris prisoners always welcome new faces from the shore all welt well boys inquires the doctor all AJI well sir right so are your wives and baarns A hearty handshake ratifies the exchange of good news and almost before we have had time to turn around t tte two men have slid down the ladder I 1 into 4 0 our boat and are off for an hours fishing while we explore the lighthouse under the guidance of their co comrade ade it is hk a cc pumping camp up that two hondr hundred feet of rocky stairway at any rat eor L for unaccustomed lungs lung tout in 9 4 afew minutes we reach courtyard pu t of the lighthouse and isad and 09 be e most northerly point at linban A 1 in her maje Q 11 small as 4 bathe courtyard wath the s e tower which whish rises fadoi it covers ra the entire apex of the 1 flugga rock and its massive boundary walls are flush with the precipices on either side the interior of the lighthouse needs little description it has the usual arrangement of floors conne connected cled with each other by ladder staircases ground floor with its huge store of oil barrels a thousand gallons for a years supply comfortable kitchen living room on the floor above the sleeping bunks of the men on the next stage and at the top ot of one ae more flight ot of steps the lantern just now a cool chamber with its beautiful laminated glass reflect ors made glorious in the afternoon daylight i ht with the colors of the prism but a after 2 ter nightfall all aglow and ablaze w th heat and light intolerable so that standing in in it you seem to be in the centre ofa of a globe of living fire from the lantern you pass on to the balcony outside outride and survey the boundless waste of waters ahead and on either hand on the east there is nothing nearer than th the e coast of norway nor on the west than the shores of the american continent nor on the north than the ice fields of the pole even at this tranquil hour and with the three seas sleeping placidly sixty fathoms beneath you cannot but adel a thrill of pride in that which so impressed lir essed the greek poet bet of two thousand years ago the sublime sublime hardihood of f shall how much more powerfully powerful y would it affect you it if you could see as these men so often see the slumbering slum slumbering berin awakened and giving battle if if uke like them you dould could watch the huge atlantic rollers breaking sheer over yonder rock which now shows above the waters to the height of one hundred feet in the clear or if you could listen for days together to the roar of winds which drown their voices even inthe in the inmost recesses of the lighthouse which sweep the platform outside with such terrific tury fury that no man could stand erect on it for a moment or move a yard from ctorn the door except by crawling on his hands bands and knees and which smite the tower itself with such tremendous violence that its solid masonry shudders like a living thing beneath the blows if would be worth 0 a good deal to the lover of new experiences to pass but one night on the rock under such conditions as these but it if he did not care to fall too far behind the march of events among the world ot men he be might pay too dearly for his new experience six weeks is the regulation term of duty in abe be lighthouse followed by a fortnight atoff off OP on shore but again and again has 4 happened during the winter season that nearer three months have passed wore before the men could be relieved to abend a night in the lighthouse at this late season of the year might mean remaining there until the whole aspect of V english politics had undergone transformation tor mation until perhaps a couple of brand new french ministries had been formed and fallen and poasi possibly ably until china hina had become a dependency of japan |
