598 
WONDEHS OF AST. 
where the amirs are too steep, more, commodious steP ^ 
wood have been placed ; by these the lantern 
reached with greater facility ; and the view which 
waits the visitor, may be imagined w'lthout the aid o* 
scrip tion ; it is an immense tanokaima, bouS^eP 
THE SEA. 
/ EUDYSTONJJ EIGHl- JSE. 
The Eddystone Eocks, on which this celebrated 
house is built, are situated nearly south-south-west oi 
middle of Plymouth-sound, being distant from 
1 lymouth nearly tourtcen miles, and from the Pronin' 
called llamhcad, about ten miles, dhej’ are almost jj,c 
line, but somewhat witliin it, which joins the Start ano^ 
Lizard Points j and as they lie nearly in the diiccOC|^j- 
vessels coa.sting up and down the Channel, they w'ere 
sarily, before the establishment of a light- house, ver)’ 
gerous, and often fatal to ships under such eircunis"" ,|,il 
'i'hcir situation, likewise, relatively to tlie Bay of 
tlic Atlantic Ocean, is such, that they lie open to the | 
of both from all the soulh-W'estern points of the 
which swells are generally allowed by mariners m i^f,,jy(il 
great and heavy in tliose seas, and particularly in the 
' Biscay. It is to be observed, that tlie soundings ot ' ‘'jjijJ' 
from the south-west towards the Eddystone, arc jijc 
eighty fathoms to forty, and that in every part, 
rocks are approached, tlie sea has a depth of at least 
fathoms 5 insomuch that all the heary seas from ti)C iJ-.i! 
west reach them uucontrouled, and break on llicm 
utmost fury. . ^ iJi'' 
The force and height of these seas are increased, ifl 
circumstance of the rocks stretching across the ehai''^ 
a direction north and south, to the lengtli of 
Iiuiidred fathoms, and by their lying in a sloping ^j-ocl'*' 
toward die soudi-west quarter. This striving of th® ba* 
as it is technically called, does not cease at low-"’®'!’' 
still goes on progicssiively ; so that, at fifty joeS 
w ard, diet e are twelve faihoms of water j neither 
terminato at ihe di.slance of a mile. From this 
tion it happens, that the seas are swollen to sucha ^jj^f* 
in storms and heavy gales of wind, as to break uu 
widi the utmost violence. 
