E D D 



328 



EDO 



Newton ; and the more faithfully that the pure eclec- 

 tic principle is pursued, the more certainly will physi- 

 w ml, moral, and religious truth eventually enlighten the 



_- - minds and improve the hearts of the human race. See 



Moshcim's f.'r. /<-. Hist. vol. i. p. J7. 171 ; Cud worth'* 

 Intel System, c. iv. 23, 30, &c. Cave, Hist. Lit. Sac. 

 1> 251; Fabricins, KM. Grtec. lib. u I .ardner'* 



Credibility, part ii. c. 36 ; and Brucker's Hist, of Phi- 

 lot, by r.nticld. vol. ii. p 59, and 509. (9) 



!'.(.' 1. 1 PS. YUKON, the name of an instrument for 

 exhibiting the time, quantity, duration, and progress of 

 solar eclipses at all part- of the earth. A drawing and 

 description of this instrument will be found in I-'ergu- 

 WHI'S Astronomy, vol. ii. p. 32. () 



ECLIPSKS. See ASTKONOMY Index, and CHRONO- 

 LOGY, p. 4 '4, 415. 



I'.t l.IPTA, a genus of plants of the class Syngene- 

 ia, and order Polygamia Superflua. Sec BOTANY, 

 p. S04 



ECLIPTIC. See ASTRONOMY. 



ECTROSIA, a genus of plants of the class Triaii- 

 dria, and order Digynia. Se BOT\NV, p. 115. 



EDDYSTONE Ko< K-. These rocks are chiefly co- 

 vered by the tide, and arc well known to mariners as 

 highly dangerous, particularly to the navigation of Ply- 

 mouth. Sound. They have been noted as the cause of 

 numerous shipwrecks, and have been much celebrated 

 on account of the lighthouses which have been erected 

 upon them. The first of these was hardly completed, 

 in 1(>98, when it was unfortunately swept away in a 

 storm, the engineer and all his people losing their lives. 

 The second had the misfortune to be demolished by 

 accidental fire in 1755. In 1759, Mr Smeaton com- 

 pleted the present Eddystone lighthouse entirely of 

 stone, which remains a proud monument of the fame 

 of that illustrious engineer, who has, besides, left a 

 most complete and luminous narrative of the progress 

 of the work, where our readers will find a distinct and 

 accurate account of every particular connected with 

 this arduous undertaking. We shall here give some 

 general description of the situation and circumstances 

 connected with these dangerous rocks, referring the 

 further account of the several buildings to our article 

 LIGHTHOUSE. 



The Eddystone rocks have evidently derived their 

 name from their situation, relatively to the set or cur- 

 rent of the tides. An eddy of the tide, is understood to 

 be a current setting in a direction contrary to the main 

 stream, and is occasioned by an island, or rock, oppo- 

 sed immediately to the tide ; and therefore, according 

 to the velocity of the stream, and the magnitude of the 

 interposed body, the eddy is found to produce either a 

 smoothness on the surface of the water, or a current in 

 the opposite direction to the tide. Thus, it is not uncom- 

 mon in the rapid tides and eddies of the Pentland Frith, 

 between the shores of Caithness and the islands of Ork- 

 ney, to see ships carried along under similar circum- 

 stances, in opposite directions, merely by the impulse of 

 these currents. Although no such effect is to be looked 

 for at the Eddystone, where the rocks are comparative- 

 ly small, and the tides less rapid, yet in moderate wea- 

 ther they cause a smoothness in the water, and produce 

 various currents, according to the lie of the rocks. 



The position of the Kddystone rocks is such, as to 

 render tne entrance of Plymouth Sound extremely dif- 

 ficult. They are situated in W. Long. 4 5', and N. 

 LaL 5(> 10 7 , bearing about 14 miles south-west from 

 Plymouth, 10 miles south-west by south from the 

 I:. ' 1 11 he-id in Cornwall, and 21 miles east, one-half 

 north, from the Bolthcad in Devonshire. 



The Eddystone rocks consist of three principal Eddytume 

 ridges, which have been distinguished by the relative v ">"*' 

 names of House Kerf, South Reef, and East 1 ""Y" 



rocks, in their greatest extent, lie north and 

 south, and m this direction measure about fiOO or 700 

 leet in length ; besides a small rock, seen only in .spring 

 tide-., called the north ea^t rock, which lies about one 

 thousand feet from the house rock. From the general 

 aspect and appearance of the Eddystone rocks, there is 

 reason to infer that the whole consists of the same 

 kind of stone. The state of the weather did not admit 

 of the writer of this article touching at any of the rocks 

 excepting that on which the UgbuDOM is built, which 

 he the more regrets, as, from the smallncss of the house 

 rock, it would l>e a kind of sacrilege to mutilate it by 

 breaking off specimens, so that he was left to judge im- 

 perfectly of its composition from parts which were 

 worn by the feet of the light keepers. It seems to be 

 eitlu-r granite or gneiss, called moiirstone in Cornwall. 

 The felspar is most abundant in it, and is chiefly of a 

 brownish colour, containing large irregularly shaped 

 white sjK-cks. It dips towards the north west, at the 

 rate of about one perpendicular to two horizontal, is 

 extremely hard, and has a very rugged appearance. 

 Its greatest horizontal dimensions at low water is about 

 65 feet, and its least about 35 feet. On the eastern 

 side it is perpendicular to the surface of the water, and 

 at one place may be said rather to over-hang, where the 

 top of the rock is elevated about 1 8 feet above low 

 water mark of spring tides, and is therefore seldom 

 covered by the rise of the tide, but on the western side 

 it slopes towards low water mark. The lighthou- 

 of difficult access on all sides, and can only be approach- 

 ed in moderate weather. The gut, or landing place, is 

 formed by the house reef, and the south reef, which af- 

 ford some shelter for a boat at low water. In this gut 

 there is about one fathom of water at the lowest tides, 

 but in all directions from the rocks the water suddenly 

 deepens to 15 and 20 fathoms, and at greater distances 

 to 4.5 and 50 fathoms. 



On the days of new and full moon, it is high water 

 at the Eddystone at a quarter past five o'clock. The 

 tide if flood sets easterly, or up Channel, and the ebb 

 tide sets westerly. Spring tides rise from 16 to 18 

 feet, and neap tides from 10 to 11 feet ; but in storms, 

 the sea at this place flies to an incredible height. * At 

 these rocks, and upon the opposite shores, it is high 

 water about two hours and a half sooner than in the 

 middle of the channel. 



The nature of the stone, and the small dimensions of 

 the house rock, are adverse to the growth of marine fijci, 

 or to the habitation of animals. Of the fonner, only the 

 smaller sorts of sea- weed were observed, as fucus mamil- 

 losus, fucus palm.it us, the common dulse, and confer- 

 va rupestrin, which, in continued storms, appears to 

 acquire a growth upon the western side of the light* 

 house, about 20 feet upon the building. The only 

 shell-fish seem to be the lepas balanoides, or barnacle, 

 and a few limpets of a small size : these last mi^lit per- 

 haps increa.se both in number and in bulk, were they 

 not apt to be destroyed for bait before they are matu- 

 red in growth. In very moderate weather, a few young 

 coal fish are caught by the light keepers, and, in the 

 vicinity of the rock, the fish common upon the coasts 

 of Cornwall and Devonshire, are caught in abundance, 

 as h.;ke, John Doric, cod, conger eel, Obg-fith, haddock, 

 whiting, skate, turbot, holibut, flounder, sle, macke- 

 rel, herring, and pilchard. (*) 



KDGAR. See EKULAND. 



3 



