2oa s. No 109., Jan. 30. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



93 



DISTANCE AT WHICH UGHT FROM A LIGHTHOUSE 

 IS VISIRLE, 



(2"-'S. iv. 370. 411.) 



Having seen several Notes in " N. & Q." about 

 the distance at which beacon fires are visible, I 

 send you the following extract from the corps 

 papers of the Royal Engineers, which occurs in 

 a description of the survey of the North Ame- 

 rican boundary under the treaty of Washington, 

 1842 : 



"A torch of birch bark was visible Avith great ease 

 even to a distance of 40 miles : and flashes of gunpowder 

 fired in an open pan could be seen to at least the same 

 distance." 



It may be observed that the stations here were 

 on hills ; that the torch was used as a mark to 

 observe to, and the gunpowder flashes as signals 

 to move the torch right or left, &c. 



In another article of the same publication, in 

 describing the Ordnance Survey, it is stated that 



" Conical piles of turf and stone 15 or 16 feet high, or 

 signals formed of planks 20 to 25 feet high, and some- 

 times 1-6 wide, were, in peculiarly favourable states of the 

 atmosphere, seen distinctly 90 to 95 miles." 



Also, that the heliostadt invented by Col. Colby, 

 R.E., 4 or 5 in. diameter, was used with great 

 success at distances exceeding 100 miles, as from 

 Priscelly, South Wales, to Kippera, Wicklow ; 

 and from the Keeper, Tipperary, to Culeagh, 

 Fermanagh. 



Also, in noticing the invention of the now well- 

 known light by Lieut. Drummond, R.E., for the 

 purposes of the Survey, it is said that a station 

 which they had been for months trying to get an 

 observation to, but which had for months baffled 

 them, although only 60 miles distant, by reason 

 of the mist rising from an intervening lough, was 

 soon fixed by means of the Drummond light. 



These Instances may be said to be not strictly 

 analogous to those In question ; but I think that 

 they show that both Macistus and some of those 

 who saw the Malvern beacon must have had a 

 most peculiarly favourable atmosphere, and must 

 also have had what Sam Weller calls " extra 

 super double milled million magnifying optics." 



E. F. Du Cane. 



If not too late, I may perhaps be allowed to 

 add to what H. C. K. has said on this subject, 

 the following extract from Sir J. F. W. Herschel's 

 "Astronomy" {Cabinet Cyclopcedia), p. 140. : 



" The distances at which signals can be rendered visible 

 must of course depend on the nature of the interposed 

 country. Over sea the explosion of rockets may easily 

 be seen at fifty or sixty miles ; and in mountainous coun- 

 tries the flash of gunpowder in an open spoon may be 

 seen, if a proper station be chosen for its exhibition, at 

 much greater distances." 



Now, it should be borne in mind that in clear 



atmospheres, as in the south of France, for ex- 

 ample, the mountains themselves can be seen with 

 the naked eye sixty miles off; and surely, there- 

 fore, putting these facts together, there Is nothing 

 preposterous In the assertion of H. C. K., that 

 " the Malvern fire was visible at a distance of one 

 hundred." R. C. L. 



COMMON- place BOOKS FOR THE BIBLE. 



(2"'i S. ii. 304.) 



When I wrote before on this subject, I had 

 not seen the following note which Coleridge ap- 

 pended to a passage In Southey's Life of Wesley : 



" That man would do a great and permanent service to 

 the Ministry who should publish a Catalogue of the Books 

 in History, Biography, Physiography (including Botany, 

 Mineralog}^ &c.), Phj'siology, Psychology, Voyages, and 

 Travels, that would explain or elucidate any part of the 

 Old and New Testaments, annexing occasionally the 

 particular sections or pages of the book containing this 

 illustrative matter. With these books, or the command 

 of them in a public library, the Critici Sacri, or Pole's 

 Synopsis, and any one commentator (Corceius, for in- 

 stance),* The Bible is the plan and object of a theo- 

 logical student's course of reading. Let him begin from 

 the beginning ; read, according to his leisure and other 

 duties, from twenty to fifty verses every day, with the 

 resolve to understand every word, as far as it is in his 

 power to do so; understand it etymologically, gram- 

 matically, and in context ; and in like manner the con- 

 text, literally, chronologically, with reference to the 

 customs, and natural, social and political circumstances 

 of the age, and (lastly) doctrinally, according to its 

 place in the process of God's Plan of Redemption ; Let 

 him persevere in this, and at the end even of a twelve- 

 month he will be surprised at his own increase of know- 

 ledge and growth of power to use ; at which time he may 

 be supposed to have reached the last chapter of the 2nd 

 Book of Kings. Two years more would bring him to the 

 close of the Apocalypse ; and then if he have not neg- 

 lected prayer, meditation, and the opportunities of ob- 

 servation, Christendom will have reason to rejoice in 

 liim." — 3rd edition, vol. i. p. 429. 



Lord Bacon furnishes another suggestive pas- 

 sage, at the conclusion of his " Advancement of 

 Learning " : — 



" We find among Theological Writers too many Books 

 of Controversy ; a vast mass of what we call Positive 

 Theology, Commonplaces, Special Treatises, Cases of 

 Conscience, Sermons, Homilies, and numerous prolix 

 Commentaries upon the several books of the Scriptures : 

 but the thing we want and propose as one third Appendix 

 to Theology, is, A Short, Sound, and Judicious Col- 

 lection OF Notes and Observations upon particu- 

 lar Texts of Scripture ; without running into Com- 

 mon-place, pursuing Controversies, or reducing these 

 Notes to artificial method ; but leaving them quite loose 

 and natural. But certainly, as those Wines which flow 

 from the first treading of the Grape are sweeter and better 



* There seem to be some errors here in transcribing 

 Coleridge's marginal note. By " Critici Sacri " 1 suppose 

 Coleridge means the following work : Critici Sacri, sive 

 Annotata doctissimorum Virorum in Vetus Testamentum, 

 9 vols. ; Thesaurus, 2 vols. ; Thesaurus Novus, 2 vols. In 

 all 13 vols, folio. Amst. 1698—1732. 



