THE LIGHTHOUSE. ' 



the level of the sea, but its own height elevates the 

 lantern eighty feet above this. The white pillar-like 

 structure is conspicuously visible from almost all parts 

 of the island, and it often seems nearer than it really is. 

 It looked but a very little way behind the Farm, but 

 we found it the walk of a mile. Lapwings were 

 wheeling round us with their well-known rapid circling 

 flight, as we walked across the moor, uttering, some- 

 times close to our heads, and the next moment at a 

 distance, their plaintive cries of " Peewit 1 peewit I" 



The lighthouse appears a structure of great strength, 

 built of massive hewn stones of granite, as well as the 

 accessory buildings appropriated to the use of the 

 lightkeepers. From the purity of the atmosphere on 

 this lone rock, the whiteness of the stone is still un- 

 sullied by speck or stain ; and the period of its dura- 

 tion is as yet too brief for the action of the weather to 

 have had any perceptible influence in wearing down 

 the angles of the stone, or even in defacing the lines 

 of the quarryman/s chisel. 



A staircase of stone steps leads up to the lantern, 

 which is a room fifteen feet in diameter, surrounded 

 by panes of thick plate-glass about two and a half feet 

 square. The light is placed in the centre, -within a 

 cage, having an octagonal revolving frame. Each of 

 the eight squares of which it is composed, consists of 

 many large lenses of varying powers, so arranged that 

 the light shall be in the focus of all. In order to 

 accomplish this, the central part of every lens, except 

 the middle one, is cut away, and thus we behold a 



