THE

BASS

See also:

• ROCK
• ROCK (O.Fr. rake, Sp. rota, Ital. rocca; possibly from a Lat. form rupica, from rupes, rock)
• ROCK, DANIEL (1799–187t)

ROCK  , a small island in the Firth of Forth, about 2 M. from Canty Bay, Haddingtonshire, Scotland . It is circular in shape, measuring a mile in circumference, and is 350 ft. high . Mersenne, ob. cit., and Michael Praetorius, Svntagma Musicum (Wolfenbuttel, 1618), both of whom describe anti figure these forms of early bassoons . 7 Op. cit. vol. vii. p . 38 . named as the probable author of the transformation of pommer On three sides the cliffs are precipitous, but they shelve towards the S.W., where landing is effected . The Bass Rock is an intrusive mass of phonolitic t:rachyte or orthophyre . No nepheline has been detected in the rock, but analcite is present in small quantity together with abundant orthoclase and green sodaaugite . It bears a close resemblance to the eruptive masses of North Berwick Law and Traprain Law, but. is non-porphyritic . It is regarded by Sir A . Geikie as a plug filling an old volcanic vent, from which lava emanated during the Calciferous Sandstone period . It used to be grazed by sheep, of which the mutton was thought to be unusually good, but its principal denizens are sea-birds, chiefly solan geese, which haunt the rock in vast numbers .

A lighthouse with a six-flash

lantern of 39,000candle power was opened in 1902 . For a considerable distance E. and W. there runs through the rock a tunnel, about 15 ft. high, accessible at low water . St Baldred, whose name has been given to several of the cliffs on the shore of the mainland, occupied.a hermitage on the Bass, where he died in 756 . In the 14th century the island became the property of the Lauders, called afterwards Landers of the Bass, from whom it was purchased in 1671 by government, and a castle with dungeons was erected on it, in which many Covenanters were imprisoned . Among them were Alexander Peden (1026-1686), for four years, and John Blackadder (1615-1686), who died there after five years' detention . At the Revolution four young Jacobites captured the Rock, and having been reinforced by a few others, held it for King James from June 1691 to April 1694, only surrendering when threatened by starvation . Thus the. island was the last place in Great Britain to submit to William III . Dismantled of its fortifications in 1701, the Bass passed into the ownership of Sir Hew Dalrymple, to whose family it belongs . It is let on annual rental for the feathers, eggs, oil and young of the sea-birds and for the fees of visitors, who, reach it usually from Canty Bay and North Berwick .