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PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



that a part of every day was generally occupied in forming some 

 ingenious piece of mechanism. In 1753, his various inventions 

 and improvements had already attracted such notice that he was 

 elected member of the Eoyal Society ; and when, a few years 

 later, the accident happened which burnt down the Eddystone 

 lighthouse to the ground, he was at once fixed upon as the person 

 most proper to rebuild it A better choice could not possibly 



Eddystone Lighthouse. 



have been made, for Smeaton's lighthouse, firm as the rock on 

 which it stands, has now already braved the storms of more than 

 a century, and will no doubt continue to brave them for many 

 ages to come. Of him it may well be said " exegit monumentum 

 sere perennius," for to him is due the honour of having fixed the 

 best form to be given to a marine lighthouse, and even now the 

 Eddystone beacon-tower remains a model which has hardly been 

 surpassed bv the taller and more graceful edifices of Bell Rock 



