158 THE SEA. 



the end/' Many attempts have been made to obviate these evils by the removal of 

 rock which it was supposed acted as a lever to the water, and by other means : but in vain. 

 At length the Board of Trinity House finding their efforts futile, determined to erect another 

 lighthouse. Meantime, a light-ship has been provided, which, in case of accident to 

 Smeaton's tower, will be moored in the neighbourhood. A larger building is now in course 

 of erection on an adjacent rock, which affords a more durable foundation and is less exposed 

 to the merciless waves. It will be nearly double the height of the older structure, which 

 was seventy-two feet high, and is being built on a principle of dovetailing, which, it is 

 hoped and believed, will secure it against the worst fury of the sea. Think what that fury 

 is sometimes, gentle reader ! At the Skerry vore Rock they have an apparatus for registering 

 the power of the waves per square foot surface ; once recently it registered three tons to the foot ! 



The most noted lighthouse in the world was undoubtedly the Pharos of Alexandria, 

 named from the island on which it stood. The French, Italians, and Spaniards to-day use 

 the term almost in its original purity: thus, French for lighthouse, phare ; Italian and 

 Spanish, faro. It was commenced by the first Ptolemy, and finished about 280 B.C., th& 

 workmanship, according to all accounts, being superb. This tower of white stone was 

 400 feet high. It is stated by Josephus that the light, which was always kept burning 

 on its top at night, was visible over forty miles. It is believed to have been destroyed by 

 an earthquake, though the date of its destruction is unknown. 



The Romans were the first to erect anything approaching a Pharos, or lighthouse, 

 on our coasts. Beacon fires may have been occasionally used before ; the conquerors made 

 the matter an organised affair. On either side the Channel, at Boulogne and Dover, 

 structures of no mean altitude were raised for this purpose. That at Boulogne is supposed 

 to have been erected by Caligula; all vestiges of it have passed away. It was originally 

 called Turrls Ardens, afterwards corrupted to the Tour d' Orel re. From a description left 

 by Claude Chatillon, engineer to Henry IV., it appears that it was built about a stone's 

 throw from the edge of the cliff, above and overlooking the high tower and the castle. 

 Its form was octagonal, with a base 192 feet in circumference. It was built of grey 

 stone with thin red bricks between. That at Dover still exists. It occupies the highest 

 point of the lofty rock on which the famous castle is built. This Pharos was also 

 octagonal in outward form, being square within. It is 33 feet in diameter, and formerly 

 about 72 feet high. On the summit three holes on the three exterior sides indicate their 

 purposes, both for look-out and for exhibiting a light seawards. 



Long after, and indeed almost down to our days, fire-beacons were far more common 

 on exposed parts of our coasts than lighthouses. "The first idea of a lighthouse/' said 

 Faraday, "is the candle in the cottage window, guiding the husband across the water or 

 the pathless moor/' Lambarde says of the lights shown along the coast that, "Before 

 the time of Edward III., they were made of great stacks of wood; but about the eleventh 

 yeere of his raigne it was ordained that in our shyre (Kent) they should be high standards 

 with their pitchpots." Such were long used. 



Lighthouses in these days differ greatly in material and mode of construction. Stone, 

 brick, cast and wrought iron, and even wood, are used, according to the necessities of the- 

 case, or the lacks of ' the special locality where they are placed. In the case of some iron 



