THK SKERRYVOEE LIGHTHOUSE. 87 



first summer ; and, lest it might be supposed that this was hut 

 little "work for so long a time, it may be as well to remark that, 

 such was the turbulence of the sea that between August 7 and 

 September 11, it had only been possible to be 165 hours on the 

 rock. Much inconvenience was occasioned by the hard and 

 slippery nature of the volcanic formation of the Skerryvore, to 

 which the action of the sea had given the appearance and the 

 smoothness of a mass of dark-coloured glass, so that the foreman 

 of the masons compared the operation of landing on it to that of 

 climbing up the neck of a bottle. When we consider how often, 

 by how many persons, and under what circumstances of swell 

 and motion, this operation was repeated, we must look upon 

 this feature of the spot as an obstacle of no slight amount. 



At length, after much danger and difficulty, the barrack was 

 completed, but the first November storm swept it away and 

 utterly annihilated the work of the season. Iron stancheons 

 had been drawn, broken, and twisted like the wires of a 

 champagne bottle ; the smith's iron anvil had been transported 

 eight yards from where it was left ; and a stone three-fourths 

 of a ton was lifted out from the bottom of a hole and sent 

 towards the top of the rock. 



Mortified, but nothing daunted by this disaster, which gave 

 him a warning of the tremendous power he had to contend with, 

 Mr. Stevenson prepared during the winter for the labours of 

 1839, which, besides the re-erection of the barrack on an im- 

 proved plan, chiefly consisted in the levelling or blasting of a flat 

 surface of forty-two feet diameter on the top of the rock from 

 which the lighthouse was to arise. This foundation pit was in 

 itself a work of no small magnitude, as it required for its ex- 

 cavation the labours of 20 men for 217 days, the firing of 296 

 shots, and the removal into deep water of 2,000 tons of material. 

 The blasting, from tbe absence of all cover and the impossibility 

 of retiring to a distance farther in any case than thirty feet, and 

 often reduced to twelve, demanded all possible carefulness. 



The only precautions available were a skilful appointment of 

 the charge and the covering the mines with mats and coarse net- 

 tincf made of old rope. Every charge was fired by or with the 

 assistance of the architect in person, and no mischief occurred. 



The year 1840 had now arrived, and the construction of the 

 lighthouse was about to begin. Quarriers and labourers had been 



