262 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS. [May 23, 1859. 



tion to the navigation of the Channel has been made in the publica- 

 tion by the Admiralty of the 2nd volume of the ' Channel Pilot,* 

 containing Sailing Directions for the north coast of France, from 

 Dunkirk on the east to Ushant on the west, comprising the 

 Channel Islands. The work has been carefully compiled by Mr. 

 J. W. King, of the Hydrographic Office, from the * Pilote rran9ais,* 

 the labours of Rear- Admiral Martin White, Mr. C. Bumey, r.n., 

 and others. 



In Cornwall, Captain Williams and Mr. Wells have surveyed 

 eight miles of open coast from the Eame Head westward to St. 

 Germans beacon, including Whitesand bay and Port Wrinkle, sound- 

 ing over an area of 230 square .miles between the Beacon and Fal- 

 mouth, with plans of the small harbours of Boscastle and Port Isaac, 

 on the north coast of the county ; they have also executed a 

 very detailed plan, on the scale of 100 feet to an inch, of the 

 Eddystone rocks off Plymouth, showing the exact outline of the 

 granite mass that forms the base for that wonderful structure, the 

 Eddystone Lighthouse, erected by Smeaton in 1760, and which 

 has hitherto withstood the force of the Atlantic waves. A similar 

 structure, in a still more exposed situation, has just been completed, 

 under the direction of the Trinity Board, by their skilful engineer, 

 Mr. James Walker, ably seconded by Mr. Douglas, on the Bishop 

 rock, six miles south-west of the Scilly Isles. These noble light- 

 towers, like the two similar buildings on the Bell rock on the 

 east coast of Scotland, and of Skerry vore on the west, are national 

 works in the cause of humanity, and for the safety of our shipping, 

 of which the country may be justly proud ; and they will transmit 

 to distant posterity the names of the eminent engineers Smeaton, 

 Walker, and the Stevensons, father and sons. 



In the Bristol Channel an^ its approaches, Commander AUdridge 

 and Mr. Hall, in the Asp, have made a survey of Swansea Bay and 

 its immediate neighbourhood, which has revealed some patches of 

 hard ground — probably oyster beds, not before known. This plan, 

 which shows sixteen miles of coast line and 20,000 casts of the 

 lead, is drawn on the scale of nine inches to a statute mile, and 

 proved very useful to the Refuge Harbours Commission in its 

 examination of Swansea Bay and the Mumbles, which had been 

 mentioned as a site for a refuge harbour ; and, although the Com- 

 mission has not recommended it as such, there seems a fair proba- 

 bility that the shelter afforded by the Mumbles Head, the abundance 

 of stone for construction, and the increasing want of some shelter 



