180 THE SEA. 



are bound toother by granite joggles, which at the same time penetrate into the two 

 superposed stones. The stones have been cut and arranged with such precision that 

 there has been hardly any reason for using cement, which has only been employed in 

 filling up a few imperceptible voids : and hence the lighthouse, from the base to the 

 summit, seems to form one solid block, which is more homogeneous and probably more 

 compact than t^e rocks which support it. The platform which crowns this magnificent 

 column, at an elevation of more than 140 feet above high tide watermark, is surmounted 

 by a stone cupola, at once solid and graceful, supported by pillars which are separated by 

 large panes of glass. It is within this frame of glass that the beacon is lighted, which 

 may be distinctly seen from every direction at a distance of twenty-seven miles. 



" At low tide the sea leaves a space of several hundred square yards uncovered round 

 the base of the edifice; at high tide it entirely surrounds it. It is then that the tower 

 of Hehaux rises in its solemn isolation from the midst of the waves, as if it were a 

 standard of defiance upraised by the genius of man against the demon of the tempest. 

 At times one might almost fancy that the heavens and the sea, conscious of the outrage 

 offered to them, were leagued together against the enemy, which seems to brave them by 

 its imperturbability. The north-west wind roars round the tower, darkening its thick glass 

 windows with torrents of rain and drifts of snow and hail. These impetuous blasts bear 

 along with them from the far-spread ocean colossal waves, whose crests not unfrequently 

 reach the first gallery, but these fluid masses slide away from the round and polished 

 surfaces of the granite, which leave them no points of adhesion, and darting their long 

 lines of foam above the cupola, they break with thundering roar against the rocks of 

 Stallio-Bras or the boulders of Sillon. The tower supports these terrific assaults without 

 injury, although it bends, as if in homage, before the might of its foes. I was assured 

 by the keepers that during a violent storm the oil in the lamps of the highest rooms 

 presents a variation of level exceeding an inch, which would lead us to assume that the 

 summit of the tower describes an arc of about a yard in extent. This very flexibility 

 seems, however, in itself a proof of durability. At all events, we meet with similar 

 conditions in several monuments, which for ages have braved the inclemency of recurring 

 seasons. The spire of Strasburg Cathedral, in particular, bends its long ogives and 

 slender pinnacles beneath the force of the winds, while the cross on its summit oscillates 

 at an elevation of more than 450 feet above the ground. 



" To construct a monument on these rocks, which seemed the veiy focus of all the 

 storms which raged on that part of our coasts, was like building an edifice in the open 

 sea. Such a project must, indeed, have appeared at first sight almost impracticable. After 

 their third season of labour, the workmen completed the foundations of the tower and 

 fixed the key-stone of the cupola. In vain did difficulties of every kind combine with 

 the winds and waves to oppose the work; human industry has come forth victorious from 

 the struggle, and although a thousand difficulties and dangers beset the labourers, no 

 serious accident to them or their work troubled the joy of their triumph. Only on one 

 occasion was science at fault. In order to facilitate the arrival of the stones, which had 

 to be brought from a distance of several leagues, and cut at Brehat, the skilful engineer 

 who had furnished all the plans and superintended their execution wished to construct 



