CURIOUS NAUTICAL FAcT.—Before the Bell Rock Light-house was erected, vessels
from the North of Scotland, and from the East country more especially, whether the wind was east or west, whether they were on a lee or Weather shore, whether it blew hard or gently, were compelled to take in sail on approaching the land near the Red Head at night, lest they should -bump on the Bell Rock.—New Times. If it. blew a gale dead on the shore, nevertheless all mariners off this particular spot reduced sail, never, in any case of weather, spreading every stitch of canvass they could carry to claw off, as they are obliged to do under such circumstances in other places, where the credit of SCOTT'S poetry is not concerned in their tactics. "To strike his sail," the New Times explains, does not mean what it expresses, to strike all sail, but only the top-gallants and royals. Why did not the poet then use the plural ? Where the singular is emPloyed for the plural in this manner, it conveys the sense of an entirety. The question why a man should scorn to perform an unnecessary ad, remains still unanswered.
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