196 



THE SEA. 



all people in the world, who so toiled and suffered, lavishing- blood and treasure under the 

 walls of Sebastopol, should be the last to underrate the importance of a good fortification 

 as a check to an invading- army." The reader will hardly require any defence of such policy, 

 for naval arsenals contain the very germ of our power, as the iron safe of the prudent man 

 contains his valuables. 



The Bill of Portland greatly resembles the situation of Gibraltar. There are the same bold, 

 steep, rocky headlands ; the breakwater stands in place of the Mole, and Chesil Bank connects 

 it with the mainland, as the neutral ground does our great Mediterranean citadel with Spanish 

 soil. " Its height, its isolation, and the harbour it commands, all pointed it out as a place for 

 an impregnable we had almost said an inaccessible fortress. To the late Prince Consort 

 is due the credit of having seen its vast importance in this respect, as it was also owing to 



HOLYHEAD BREAKWATER. 



his enlightened judgment that, the breakwater was begun at last, and he himself laid the 

 foundation-stone. Portland is rising, as we have said, into a first-class fortress, of which 

 the Verne is the great key or citadel." So spoke the Times, in 1863 ; and now Portland 

 is the best fortified port and naval station in the kingdom. 



The Verne is a height which, like La Roche at Cherbourg, dominates over all around 

 it for miles, especially on the side which overlooks the breakwater and the sea. On the 

 north side it is protected by nearly perpendicular cliffs ; elsewhere it is fully protected by 

 art. One of its greatest defences is the dry ditch which completely encircles the whole work, 

 except on the north side just mentioned, where it is both unnecessary and impossible. 

 This ditch is one of the greatest ever undertaken in ancient or modern days. Its depth is 80 

 feet, and its width 100, and in some places 200 feet; its length is nearly a mile, and its floor 

 is 368 feet up the hill-side. Nearly two million tons of stone had to be blasted to form 

 it ; and it would never have been excavated on the colossal scale indicated, but that all the 

 said stone was utilised in building the breakwater. "With this tremendous artificial ravine to 



