In about half a mile after leaving the ruins of these old castles we saw the Noss Head Lighthouse, with its powerful light already flashing over the darkening seas, and we decided to visit it.  We had to scale several fences, and when we got there we found we had arrived long after the authorised hours for the admission of visitors.  We had therefore some difficulty in gaining an entrance, as the man whose attention we had attracted did not at first understand why we could not come again the next day.  When we explained the nature of our journey, he kindly admitted us through the gate.  The lighthouse and its surroundings were scrupulously clean, and if we had been Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Lighthouses, if such there be, we could not have done otherwise than report favourably of our visit.  The attendants were very kind to us, one of them accompanying us to the top, and as the lighthouse was 175 feet high, we had a great number of steps to climb.  We had never seen the interior of a lighthouse before, and were greatly interested in the wonderful mechanism by which the flashlight was worked.  We were much impressed by the incalculable value of these national institutions, especially in such dangerous positions as we knew from experience prevailed on those stormy coasts.  We were highly delighted with our novel adventure, and, after regaining the entrance, we walked briskly away; but it was quite dark before we had covered the three miles that separated the lighthouse from the fishery town of Wick.  Here we procured suitable lodgings, and then hurried to the post office for the letters that waited us, which we were delighted to read, for it seemed ages since we left home.

(Distance walked twenty-five miles.)

[Illustration:  NOSS HEAD LIGHTHOUSE.]

Tuesday, September 19th.

We had our first experience of a herring breakfast, and were surprised to find how delicious they tasted when absolutely fresh.  There was an old proverb in Wick:  “When the herrings come in, the doctors go out!” which may indicate that these fish had some medicinal value; but more likely the saying referred to the period of plenty following that of want and starvation.  We went down to the quay and had a talk with some of the fishermen whom we met returning from their midnight labours.  They told us they had not caught many herrings that night, but that the season generally had been a good one, and they would have money enough to support themselves through the coming winter.  There were about nine hundred boats in the district, and sometimes over a thousand, all employed in the fishing industry; each boat was worked by four men and one boy, using nets 850 yards long.  The herrings appeared about the second week in August and remained until the end of September, but the whales swallowed barrels of them at one “jow.”