“Find that if the light were to be moved to a more southern situation, it would be better on either of the above places than Rattray Head, which would entirely remove its usefulness from the Moray Firth.
“Find that in the event of two lights for this coast, the one ought to be at Kinnairdhead, and the other upon the Cock Inch at Peterhead.
“Under all the circumstances of the case, find that it would be most advisable to erect a new lighthouse at Kinnairdhead, about 100 yards more to the eastward than the Castle stands, and erect it about twenty or thirty feet higher than the Castle. This, with a better light, would perhaps answer the general purposes of the coast better than a single light placed on any of the other stations along this coast.”
After perusing this extract, the reader, I think, will not be surprised to find Mr. Stevenson making an urgent appeal on behalf of all interested--Seamen--Fishermen, and Engineers, for a Government Survey and “Sailing Directions” of the intricate navigation of the shores of Scotland, which he did in the following terms:--
“The attention which Government has long paid to the improvement of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, in connection with the British Fisheries, has been attended with the best effects in the country at large. It is much to be wished that these shores were rendered more accessible to the mariner.
“The marine survey of the Highlands by Murdoch Mackenzie, undertaken by order of the Lords of the Admiralty, may be considered as the first grand step towards the improvement of the Highlands, and next to that the later institution of the Northern Lighthouses. By means of these the fisher may find his way from loch to loch, and the mariner bound over seas, instead as formerly of holding a course without the Lewis Islands, can now find his way through the Sounds, and in adverse winds take shelter in safe harbours, instead of being exposed to the boisterous seas of the Atlantic Ocean; these charts and lighthouses have in many points of view contributed to the improvement of the Highlands, and to the present flourishing trade carried on through these Sounds from Liverpool, etc., to the northern continent of Europe. However, from the extensive range of coast which these charts include, together with the prodigious number of extensive lochs and small islands, it was impossible that any first survey could be made so accurate as to supply the place of pilots, where there are neither landmarks to characterise the coast, nor beacons or buoys to point out the situation of sunk rocks; and although these charts have certainly contributed much to the facility and security of the navigation of the Highlands, yet no one will say that they are free from imperfections, and their incommodious size and high price are insurmountable bars to their general utility, thereby rendering them impracticable for the use of small vessels, so that they are only to be found in the cabins of large vessels, where large accommodation affords room to unfold them, but even here also the price forms an objection, as the charts are always _found_ by the shipmaster.
