1826, when steering E.S.E., a man at the mast-head called out that there were breakers close to us on the starboard bow. I immediately hauled the brig up, S.S.E., to clear them. In the run of the sea, a rock appeared a little above water, nearly flat, about ninety feet long and forty broad; saw no breakers except round the rock, but could distinctly see the sea working over it. We sailed from the rock eleven miles S.S.E. by compass, and observed in latitude 55° 17′ N. We then bore up E.S.E. thirty-six miles, and E. by S. six miles, when Tory island bore by compass S.W.12W., distant one mile and a half.'
Sixthly.—In the Greenock Advertiser of 30th July, 1827, we read—'In the brig Paddy Carey, D. Cunningham, master, on her passage from New Orleans to this port, on Wednesday the 25th inst., while running for the North Channel, at three p.m., Mr. Drain, my mate, called me and said he saw a long-boat bottom up. I ran on deck, and saw the sea roll over it; at the same time it struck me it was Aitkins' Rock, although it did not agree in the latitude by several miles. It appeared, at the north end, smooth, and the south end like the tail of a fish. The sea rolled over it, and in the hollow of the sea it was about two or three feet high, and about thirty or forty feet long. We had all sail set at the time, and were going seven knots: so that we had not much time to examine it. We had an observation the same day in latitude 55° 08′ N., and longitude 12° W. We ran E. by S.12S. fifty miles, E.S.E. fifty, and S.E. by E. ten miles, and made the land of Arranmore at five a.m. on the 26th. We found the vessel had been a-head of her reckoning about thirty miles, and applying this correction it would appear we passed it in latitude 55° 12′ N., and longitude 10° 30′ W. We could not exactly say it was a rock, but think it proper to report the circumstance, as it may be useful to warn mariners of a possible danger.'
Lastly.—Mr. Anthony Carrol, who had a small fishing vessel on the north-west coast of Ireland, and whom we have personally interrogated on this subject, declares to have seen the rock in June, 1820, and again in June, 1821,—on each occasion about sunrise, with light easterly winds and smooth sea. He stated his nearest approach, by estimation, was about three hundred yards. Its top was small—about three feet above water, rising abruptly on the north side, and sloping gradually on the south. There was no surf or break upon it, but merely a ripple of the waters round it. He did not examine it with his boat, neither did he try for soundings anywhere in its vicinity, which he attributes to the superstitious feeling of his people, and his account is altogether vague and unsatisfactory; yet this is one of the living evidences
