1 850.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



233 



and swept from the rock, nothing remaining to point out its site 

 but a few broken and twisted iron stancheons, and attached to one 

 of them a piece of a beam so shaken and rent by dashing against 

 the rock as literally to resemble a bunch of laths. Thus did one 

 night obliterate the traces of a season's toil, and blast the hopes 

 which the workmen fondly cherished of a stable dwelling on the 

 rock, and of refuge from the miseries of sea-sickness, which the 

 experience of the season had taught many of them to dread more 

 than death itself. After the removal of the rcrtighest part of the 

 foundation of the tower had been neajly completed, during almost 

 two entire seasons, by the party of men who lived on board the 

 vessel while she lay moored off the rock, a second and successful 

 attempt was made to place a second beacon of the same descrip- 

 tion, but strengthened by a few additional iron ties and a centre 

 post, in a part of the rock less exposed to the breach of the 

 heaviest waves than the site of the first barrack had been. This 

 second house braved the storm for several years after the works 

 were finished, when it was taken town and removed from the rock 

 to prevent any injury from its sudden destruction by the waves. 

 Perched 40 feet above the wave-beaten rock in this singular 

 abode, the writer of this little volume, with a goodly company of 

 thirty men, has spent many a weary day and night at those times 

 when the sea prevented any one going down to the rock, anxiously 

 looking for supplies from the shore, and earnestly longing for a 

 change of weather favourable to the recommencement of the 

 works. For miles around nothing could be seen but white foaming 

 breakers, and nothing heard but howling winds and lashing waves. 

 At such seasons much of our time was spent in bed; for there 

 alone we had effectual shelter from the winds and spray which 

 searched every cranny in the walls of the ban-ack. Our slumbers, 

 too, were at times fearfully interrupted by the sudden pouring of 

 the sea over the roof, the rocking of the house on its pillars, and 

 the spurting of water through the seams of the dooi's and windows, 

 symptoms which, to one suddenly aroused from sound sleep re- 

 called the appalling fate of the former barrack, which had been 

 engulphed in the foam not twenty yards from our dwelling, and 

 for a moment seemed to summon us to a similar fate. On two 

 occasions, in particular, those sensations were so vivid as to cause 

 almost every one to spring out of bed; and some of the men fled 

 from the barrack by a temporary gangway to the more stable but 

 less comfortable shelter afforded by the bare wall of the lighthouse 

 tower, then unfinished, where they spent the remainder of the 

 night in the darkness and the cold. 



" The design of the Skerryvore lighthouse was given by the 

 writer of this volume, and was an adaptation of Smeaton's Eddy- 

 stone Tower to the peculiar situation and circumstances of the 

 case at the Skerryvore, with such modifications in the general 

 arrangements and dimensions of the building, as the enlarged 

 views of the importance of lighthouses %vhich prevail at the present 

 day seemed to call for. 



"The Skerryvore Tower is 138 ft. 6 in. high, and +2 feet in dia- 

 meter at the base, and 16 feet at the top. It contains a mass 

 of stonework of about 58,580 cubic feet, or more than double that 

 of the Bell Kock, and not much less than Jive times that of the 

 Eddystone. 



" The mortar used at the Skerryvore was compounded of equal 

 parts of limestone (horn the Halkin Mountain, near Holywell, in 

 North Wales), burnt and ground at the works, and of Pozxolano 

 earth. The mixture was carefully beaten up to the required con- 

 sistency with sea-water. All tlie joints of each course of the 

 building were carefully filled with grout, which is cement in a fluid 

 state. 



" The entire cost of the lighthouse, including the purchase of 

 the steam vessel and the building of the harbour at Hynish for 

 the reception of the small vessel which now attends the lighthouse, 

 was 86,977/. 17s. ~d., the detailed items of which will be found in 

 the Appendix to the Account of the Liglithonse already alluded to. 



" In such a situation as the Skerryvore, innumerable delays and 

 disappointments were to be expected by those engaged in the work; 

 and the entire loss of the fruit of the first season's labour in the 

 course of a few hours, was a good lesson in the school of patience, 

 and of trust in something better than an arm of flesh. During 

 our progress, also, cranes and other materials were swept away by 

 the* waves; vessels were driven by sudden gales to seek shelter at 

 a distance from the rocky shores of Mull and Tyree; and the 

 workmen were left on the rock desponding and idle, and destitute 

 of many of the comforts with which a more roomv and sheltered 

 dwelling and the neighbourhood of friends are generally connected. 

 Daily risks were run in landing on the rock in a heavy surf, in 

 blasting the splintery gneiss, or by the falling of heavy bodies 



from the tower on the narrow space below, to which so many 

 persons were necessarily confined. Yet had we not any loss of 

 either life or limb; and although our labours were prolonged from 

 dawn to night, and our provisions were chiefly salt, the health ot 

 the people, with the exception of a few slight cases of dysentery, 

 was generally good throughout the six successive summers of our 

 sojourn on the rock. The close of the work was welcomed with 

 thankfulness by all engaged in it; and our remarkable preservation 

 was viewed, even by many of the most thoughtless, as, in a pecu- 

 liar manner, the gracious work of Him by whom 'the very hairs of 

 our heads are all numbered.'" 



Architectural Publication Societi/. Illustrations, Part II. of Volume 

 for 1849-50. 



The part now before us includes Arcade, Mosaic Ceiling, 

 Interior of Chapels, Chimney, Facade, Metal AVork, Pedestal, 

 Piazza, Pulpit, and Staircase, with thirteen plates. Most of 

 the examples are Italian. The plate representing the interior 

 of the Chapel of San Domenico at Bologna is coloured so as 

 to give some idea of the picturesque appearance of the original 

 building. The Mosaic Ceiling of the Sacristy of St. Marks at 

 Venice is a novelty, and it is likewise illustrated by an illuminated 

 plate of a portion, gorgeous in its effect. The plate of Lombard 

 Chimnies gives one-and-twenty varied designs. The article Fat^-ade 

 shows two arcaded buildings. There is likewise a Flemish brick 

 front in the Gothic style. 'The Metal Work gives some picturesque 

 knockers. 



Attached to this part is some description of the buildings repre- 

 sented in the two parts of the volume for this year. 



Buildings and Monuments, Modern and Mediaval. Edited by 

 Geokge Gouwi.v, F.R.S. London: 1850. Part VII. 

 The church of the Immaculate Conception, by Mr. Scoles, 

 exhibits some very rich tracery; the church of La Villette, at 

 Paris, is interesting, as showing how parish churches are treated 

 there; the Custom-house, Rouen, is a novel piece of street archi- 

 tecture. There are likewise other subjects, and as some details 

 are given, the number will be a very acceptable addition to the 

 library. 



Sections ofthf London Strata. By Robert W. Mylne, C.E. F.G.S., 

 F.S..\., ,M. I.B.A. London: James Wyld. 1850. 

 Mr. Mylne's work, no doubt, will meet with its full share of 

 favour, it being particularly useful to all who are engaged or inte- 

 rested in the sanitary progress of the metropolis. There are five 

 sections; the first alone has the strata delineated in detail, with 

 the necessary geological references: the remaining four sections 

 are ouly in outline ; but as the author intends to complete them 

 from materials already collected, the horizontal and vertical scales 

 are in the proportion of 18 to 1. The engravings also show the 

 site and depth of all the principal wells which have been sunk in 

 and about London. We hope this work will induce other 

 engineers and architects to observe and describe the structure of 

 the country around them, for at present our knowledge of the 

 crust of the earth is very inaccurate and limited. 



Hydraulic Tulles. By N.^thaniel Beardmore, M. Inst. C.E. 

 London: AVaterlow. 1850. 

 Hydraulic engineering is so extensively practised as to require 

 a considerable number of works for its practitioners; and Mr. 

 Beardmore has rendered a very essential service by the publication 

 of this hand-book, which in a very close compass gives the 

 materials requisite for the calculation of water and mill-power, 

 water supply, drainage, and the navigation of rivers, tables of the 

 rainfall in England, and some subsidiary information. From Jlr. 

 Beardmore's experience and high-standing, we should have been 

 prepared for a more extensive work, and more copious information. 



The Civil Engineer's and Surveyor's Companion, and Assistant in 

 Setting out Slopes, S;c. By Edward Rydk, Surveyor. London : 

 Published by the Author, 1850. 

 These pages constitute a set of tables for setting out slopes, 



curves, cuttings, and embp-nkments, and as they are intended tu> 



32 



