CHAPTER V.OPERATIONS OF 1839.

During the winter months which intervened between November 1838 and March 1839, a small detachment of men, consisting of three masons, nine quarriers, and one smith, were left at Hynish under the superintendence of Mr Charles Barclay, to clear the landing-place of several patches of rock which encumbered the entrance.Shipping Station and Pier at Hynish.They were also to build some walls of inclosure, and to quarry and dress stones for the pier and other buildings at Hynish. The provision of accommodation for shipping at that place was now naturally regarded as of more urgent necessity than formerly, because the importation of stones from Mull, which the failure of the Tyree stone had rendered unavoidable, led to the necessity of a reshipment of all the materials at Hynish, where they were dressed before being sent to the Rock. It may, perhaps, be naturally enough imagined, that instead of importing the materials to be dressed at Tyree and there reshipped in order to be carried to the Rock, they might have been prepared in Mull, and sent directly to the Skerryvore; but many things concurred to render this inexpedient, if not altogether impracticable. The advantage of being able, by means of a good telescope, in some measure to ascertain the state of the sea at the Rock, the comparative shortness of the passage, which gave the prospect of several cargoes being landed on it in one day during fine weather, and the convenience of communicating with the Rock by signal, were circumstances in themselves quite sufficient to determine my choice infavour of Hynish, as the place from which the materials must be shipped for the Rock, even if there had been no other considerations leading to the same conclusion. But in addition to all this, I could not fail to perceive that Hynish was the only place for the permanent station of the vessel attending on the future Lighthouse; and that on that account alone the construction of a Harbour there was unavoidable. That the arrangement, by which the future station for the Tender was used as the workyard for the operations, was the most judicious that could have been adopted, was fully proved by my subsequent experience of the advantage of assembling all our materials and all our force at a point as near to the Rock as possible, so that we might be at all times ready to supply defects or omissions, and take advantage of every favourable change of the sea or sky.

In the middle of March theRegentconveyed from Aberdeen a detachment of twenty-nine masons and quarriers and five smiths, and the foreman of the workyard, who, together with the men already at Hynish and the native labourers, were to be employed during the season of 1839, in the various departments of the work. On their arrival the men were separated into two small bands, of which the one, consisting of six masons, twelve quarriers, one smith and a foreman, was stationed at North Bay in Mull, where the new quarries were to be opened; while the other had its head quarters at Hynish, and, when not engaged in the work on the Rock itself, was subdivided into smaller parties, varying in number with the nature of the particular operations in which the men were occupied.

On the afternoon of the19th AprilI sailed from Greenock in theRegent, for North Bay in Mull,Granite quarries in Mull.where the quarries were to be opened. We had on board the whole materials of the new Barrack, which was to supply the place of that which had been destroyed in the preceding month of November; and we had also a party of carpenters who came to fit up the Barrack in a temporary manner at North Bay, as a residence for the masons who were tobe engaged in preparing more permanent dwellings for the quarriers and in forming a landing-wharf for the shipment of the stones for Tyree. It was not till the 25th, after a tedious passage of six days, that we anchored at North Bay; and next morning we had the satisfaction of seeing the steamer, theSkerryvore(by which name she was specially set apart for the service of the works), arrive in the Bay with a party of masons and quarriers, who had been appointed to meet us in order to begin the work.

The necessary arrangements with the Duke of Argyll’s tenants at theRossof Mull (in which district North Bay is situated) having been already made, no time was lost in erecting the wooden Barrack; and, in seven days after our arrival, the masons and quarriers entered their new habitation under the charge of Mr Charles Stewart, whom I left as foreman of the North Bay works. Mr Stewart and his party, following the example of diligence thus set to them, were not less expeditious in proceeding with the work which had been assigned to them; and by the beginning of August a range of barracks, capable of accommodating forty persons, had been erected, a landing wharf had been built, and various storehouses had been provided, although the quarry had to be opened, and the blocks of stone required for those various works were stillin situat the time of our landing at North Bay three months before.

The landing wharf is placed on a small projecting face of rock in a depth of 12 feet at high water of ordinary spring tides. It presents a face of 40 feet in length, and was provided with wooden fenders for the protection of the vessels loading stones. Landward of it a considerable space was levelled, by cutting and filling, to serve as a yard for storing the quarried materials, so as to be ready for shipment. The quarry itself was opened in the face of a hill, so steep as almost to deserve the name of a cliff; but advantage was taken of a deep gully which intersected it and in it an inclined plane was formed communicating directly with the landing-place. This gully was partly cleared by excavation of therock and partly, where necessary, its inequalities were smoothed down by filling it with stone shivers; and along its bed thus prepared, longitudinal sleepers of timber were laid, to whichedge-railswere attached.

At the top of the incline two iron drums or barrels were set, and round them were wound, in opposite directions, the chains by which the trucks or wagons, loaded with stones from the quarry, were lowered to the wharf below. A powerful break apparatus was attached to those barrels, to check the velocity of the descending wagons, which was also in part counteracted, by making their gravity act as a power to raise the empty wagons in the same manner as is usually practised in coal-mines.

The quarry itself, as already stated, was opened in the face of the cliff, at a point where the successive beds of solid rock seemed to promise the fairest prospect of success. The preliminary operation was to remove a very thin alluvial cover which scarcely concealed from view a large mass of most beautiful granite, whose reddish colour is said to have given the name ofRoss[19]to that part of Mull, the shores of which everywhere exhibit massive slopes of that fine rock. The granite is separated very abruptly from the basalts of the surrounding district, so as to leave the Ross purely granitic; but in no part of the whole coast, which abounds with creeks and bays, does the rock appear to be of equal quality, or so conveniently situated for shipping, and so easily accessible to quarriers, as at the spot we had chosen. I know of no instance of a quarry so fully answering the most sanguine expectations as that of the Ross of Mull; and I have never seen a granite quarry of equally great resources, as regards both the quantity and the quality of the material produced. The rock in general yielded easily before well-directed shots, and was separated into large masses, capable of being advantageously cut, with little loss of material, intoshapely blocks, by means of wedges, which work remarkably well in that rock. A few weeks after the quarrying operations had been commenced, a single shot detached 150 tons of excellent stone, in the cutting of which into blocks for the Lighthouse Tower little loss of material occurred; and in the course of the season of 1839, although the summer was chiefly spent in the preliminary works above noticed, the Mull quarries produced nearly as much workable material for the Lighthouse Tower as the Hynish quarries had done in three years. In the course of the future working of the quarry, when it came to be more fully opened, its resources were so great, that on one occasion a single shot shook about 570 tons, while another shot detached a mass of 460 tons. In that way, between April 1839 and June 1840, material had been quarried in that single spot, sufficient to supply 4300 selected blocks, varying in weight from ³⁄₄ ton to 2¹⁄₂ tons each. The average monthly produce of the quarries was about 400 tons, and there were generally employed in them 26 quarriers, 3 labourers, and 2 smiths. The quantity of gunpowder consumed in the quarry was small, as it was almost exclusively employed in great bores about 11 feet deep, for the purpose of detaching large masses which had noopen sideand could not be removed by means of thepinchorcrow-bar. When a mass of rock had been thus removed, it was cut up into various portions by means of wedges, and finally subdivided into blocks,hammer(or as it is calledquarry)dressed, according to rough moulds, whose dimensions exceeded those of the stones of the various courses of the building by a quantity which was considered sufficient to cover any casualty in the final dressing of the block by the masons at Hynish, and which allowance was generally equal to a film of rock about 1¹⁄₂ inch in depth. The blocks thus roughly formed were shipped for Hynish, distant about 26 miles, through a tempestuous sea, open to the full reach of the Atlantic towards the south-west, sometimes in a small vessel called the “Queen,” belonging to theCommissioners, and sometimes in undecked boats of 16 tons, belonging to the adventurous men of Tyree. The freight usually paid was 5s. a ton, and yet the whole of the blocks for the Lighthouse Tower, and many of those used in the pier at Hynish, were laid down to the number of about 5000, at the rate of 2s. 1¹⁄₂d. per cubic foot, including all the expense of building barracks, opening quarries, freight of stones, and the expense of building and maintaining the small vessel called the “Queen,” above noticed. The stone of the Mull quarries is a reddish or flesh-coloured granite, in which felspar predominates. About 13·66 cubic feet weigh a ton, and it is not quite so hard as the granite of Aberdeen.

[19]Whether from any inflection of the CelticRhua, orRoy, or directly from the ItalianRosso, it would, perhaps, be impossible to determine.

As I am not aware that any professional work contains a detailed description of the quarrying of granite, some observations on that subject may not be unacceptable in this place;Observations on the quarrying of granite.and I therefore propose, at the risk of appearing somewhat prolix, to give a pretty minute account of the mode of opening and working a granite quarry, more especially as practised by us at North Bay.

Having laid bare the rock of earth, gravel, or other loose matter (which operation, as I have elsewhere mentioned, is in Scotland technically calledterring), and having swept or washed clean the surface of the rock so as to have a good view of the natural seams or joints which traverse it, the next step is to fix the best place for putting in a bore or mine.

In selecting the position of the bore, the direction of the seams and veins of the rock must be duly considered, with a view to employ the force of the explosion to the greatest advantage in separating the natural joints or beds of the rock, instead of shattering the solidmassesorposts(as they are called in the language of the quarry) into shivers or fragments.

One thing to be strictly borne in mind is, that the bore should never be in the centre of a fine or large block, but should be placed within a few inches of its back so as not to break the finer rock into small and useless fragments; and care must, at the same time,be taken to keep the bore clear of cracked or unsound rock, as the jumper, in passing through such material, is liable to be jammed by the cracks and fissures before it can be driven to the proposed depth. It is not possible to lay down precise rules for guiding the quarrier in choosing the place of the bore, as his plan must be regulated chiefly by the circumstances of each case; but it may be observed, that having first determined the depth of the hole, it will seldom be found advantageous to keep the bore farther back from the face of the rock than aboutfour-fifthsof that depth. The depth itself, also, to which the mine should be carried, is a point for deliberation with the skilful and experienced quarrier, who will take great care not to go so deep as to pass through the solid rock in which he is boring and thus to touch a bed, unless indeed he shall think it advisable to attempt to raise more than onepostof rock by a single mine, in which case he will carry the bore through the first post into the second or third as the case may be. But in all cases the boring must be stopt at two inches before coming to the bed or seam of the post in which the mine is to terminate, lest the exploding powder should escape by the bottom of the bore, and thus leave the top of the rock altogether undisturbed. In endeavouring to procure large materials, the bores should in general be as deep as possible. It is only experience, however, which teaches the quarrier to form a soundprognosisas to the direction and level of the beds of the rock at any particular spot, and enables him to choose the most advantageous position and depth for the mines.

In the blasting of granite there are a few general rules which (although it may not be necessary to follow them in every case) may be considered as constituting the best practice. If the bore be a vertical one of the depth of 6 feet, 2¹⁄₂ inches diameter at the top, diminishing to 2 inches at the bottom, may be considered a proportionate caliber. If the bore be a deep one (perhaps of 14 feet), its diameter will require to be 3¹⁄₂ inches at the top, and should diminish to 2³⁄₄ inches at the bottom; and the quantity of powderrequired for the charge will in most cases be about as much as is required to fill ²⁄₅ths of the hole.[20]

[20]Miners and quarriers, who always work by empirical rules, disregard entirely theline of least resistanceas a measure for thecharge, and invariably refer to thedepthof the bore.

The patentfuseehaving been inserted among the powder, with its end about the centre of the charge, and the upper part of the bore having been filled up with dried clay, well forced down with a wooden rammer faced with copper, a length of 3 or 4 inches of thefuseeshould be left outside the bore, to which the match is to be attached. Having cleared away every thing near the blast which can receive any injury and covered up the machinery of the cranes with strong planks, the mine may be said to be ready for being fired; and, on a signal given, by blowing a horn, all hands retreat to a safe distance, with the exception of the fireman, who then lights the match, and follows the others as fast as possible.

If, as already stated, the object in quarrying be to obtain large materials, the bores should, if possible, be deep; and, in that case, the rock will seldom be thrown down in fragments by the blast, but will merely be cracked, and intersected by rents about one inch in width. Recourse must therefore be had to what, in quarry language, is called aBull, which consists in running a quantity of loose powder into the crack which has been made by the blast, at that part where its explosion seems most likely to throw out the cracked or broken mass in various fragments and disengage them from their place in the rock. Inbulling, perhaps twice as much powder as was used in the bore is loosely poured into the crack, care being at the same time taken to get as much of it to go under the bottom of the rock as possible. After enough of powder has been poured into the crack, a quantity of dried smithy ashes, or dry sand, is run in over the powder, so as completely to cover it, except so much as is required to fire it by; and that coating, which is merely superficial, is employed partly to keep down the powder, and partly for security against its being accidentally fired before all things are ready. The fireman having seen everything cleared away, gives notice to sound the alarm, when all hands escape to a distance in the direction which is supposed to be the safest. The match is then applied, and the fireman retires, as fast and as far as he can, yet so as if possible to keep in view, during his retreat, the progress of the match. The operation ofbullingis far more dangerous than the firing of a bore, as the charge is much greater, and not so well confined, so that many splinters are thrown off, and the direction in which they fly varies continually with the direction of the cracks which the original bore may have produced. As might be expected, by far the greater part of the accidents which occur to firemen in granite quarries, arise from that practice.

No. 12Plug and feathers

No. 12

Should it happen, as it sometimes does, that after having gone through those operations, the quarrier fails in getting the cracked mass thrown down to the bottom of the quarry, he varies his mode of attack, and proceeds to bore a row ofplug-holeson the face of the rock in such a line as to cut off a part from one end of the shaken mass; and for that purpose he is often obliged to hang a scaffold over the face of the rock on which to stand while boring the holes. Those plug-holes should be slightly inclined, so that, when the wedges, calledplugs[21]andfeathers, are driven into them, they may rend the rock in such a direction that the piece intended to be cut off may be a little narrower on the inner than the outer face, so that, thus resting on an incline it may be more easily taken out. The plug-holes should be cut at one foot asunder, and bored with a jumper 1¹⁄₂ inch diameter to the depth of 9 inches; and if the plug-holes be deep, and some difficulty in driving be expected, the plugs should be carefully greased or oiled previously to being driven. Having cut off a block as above described, an attempt may be made, if the massbe great, to throw it down by means ofbulling; but if it be of lesser dimensions, and there be reason to expect that it may be removed in the ordinary way, the power of the crane may be applied to draw it down. For that purpose, the quarrier employs an instrument called aDog, which is a strong short hook, armed like a pick on the point with steel, and having a ring in the end of it for the hook of the crane-chain to pass through. Having cut a small hole with a pick, on the upper part of the block which is meant to be removed, thesteeledpoint of the dog is inserted into it, in such a manner that the weight of the crane-chain may retain it steadily in its place. Five or six men then heave on the crane a strain just as much as they suppose it may bear, without danger of carrying away any of its fixtures; and as many men as can find room are, at the same time, employed at the top of the rock, working with crow-bars behind the block, so as to shake it and loosen its hold. The two parties continue their work reciprocally, leading and following,—the men at the crane, still keeping up the strain, and taking care not to heave so much as to break any of the chains, while those on the top continue to shake the block by means of the crow-bars, or throw in stones into the opening, which is always getting wider between the block and the cliff, so as to prevent the loosened mass from falling back into its old place. When the block has been drawn as far forward as to appear just ready to fall over the cliff, one of the most expert men at the crane stands carefully watching the movement of the block; and whenever the stone begins to fall, he instantly throws the craneout of the gear, so as to prevent the wheelwork being pulled to pieces by the tumbling mass getting entangled in the chains, on which it frequently falls and breaks them to pieces. The operation of taking down large blocks from a great height is very tedious, and is often attended with much danger, as the stone, when it falls on the bottom of the quarries, makes the shivers among which it alights fly in all directions with a force which nothing can withstand.

[21]Theplug(fig. 12,cc′), andfeathers(fig. 12,dd′), are flat pieces of malleable iron, slightly tapered, and forming together a kind of compound wedge, the two feathers being first inserted into the hole, and the plug being driven between them by a series of gentle blows, from malls of the weight of from 30 lb. to 35 lb.

An opening being made in the manner above described, by getting one piece brought down, the same process is continued bycutting off and taking down pieces of eight or ten tons weight, until there be as many blocks in the floor of the quarry as can be easily managed at one time. Those masses are then arranged by means of the crane in convenient positions for being cut up into blocks of the requisite sizes; and as all of them are within range of the crane, they can with its assistance be easily turned over or set in any position. While some of the men are employed in cutting up those blocks, others are clearing away the rubbish, and others are boring holes or making ready for a fresh blast.

No. 13.30 lb. mall

No. 13.

If those blocks, which we have supposed to be brought down to the quarry floor and to be ready for cutting, exceed seven feet in depth of cut, their farther subdivision will require the use of the plugs and feathers already described; but if their depth or thickness fall short of that, the ordinary iron wedges will answer. If the cut be of the depth of about 6 feet, the wedges must be placed about 3 inches apart from side to side; but if the depth of cut be less, they may be set 4 or 5 inches asunder. The method of setting in those wedges is as follows:—The person who cuts the wedge-holes generally works in a sitting posture, and if the block will admit of it, he prefers to bestride it, with a stone, as a stool, under each foot. He works with a pick of 16 lb. weight, having a handle only 16 inches long, with which he cuts the first hole generally about 3 inches from the end of the block. The holes are for the most part about 2¹⁄₂ inches deep, and 3¹⁄₂ inches long, and must be well cleared out at the bottom with a sharp pick; and the wedges must be set in a line as fair and straight as possible. Cutting wedges of that kind are of iron, from 7 to 9 inches long, and 2¹⁄₂ inches broad, and weigh about 7 lb. weight each. When in good order they must not be sharp in the mouth, but about ³⁄₈ of an inch thick, to prevent theirgroundingin the bottom of the hole; for if they but touch the bottom of the hole, they fly out at the first touch of the mall. When the wedges have been all properly arranged for a cut, the workman proceeds to give each of them in succession a gentle tap, so as to make them all fast; and for that purpose he uses a mallabout 30 lb. weight (fig. No. 13), and having a handle 2 feet 9 inches long. He then goes over all the wedges, giving each of them a smart blow in regular, yet not too rapid succession, but allowing a little time for the parts of the stone to separate gradually. If the wedges be forced too quickly, there is great danger of the cut being spoiled by its flying out obliquely at one side, and thus not reaching throughout the whole depth of the block. The blocks, when thus subdivided by means of the wedges, are generally nearly of the size required by the rough moulds sent from the workyard, and are fit to be carried to the stone-cutter’s shed.

Fig. 14.Hand mall

Fig. 14.

As a conclusion to the above account of quarrying, it may perhaps be thought desirable to give some notion of the probable time required to perform certain parts of that sort of work. In boring holes of 1 inch to 1¹⁄₄ inch in diameter, it may be observed that they are generally done with thehand mall(fig. No. 14), one and the same person striking with the mall with one hand, and turning the boring tool for himself with the other; and in most cases a man will bore 9 or 10 inches an hour in granite rock. If the bore be 1¹⁄₂ inch diameter, as for plugs, three men will generally bore two plug holes in one hour, each hole being about 9 inches deep. If the bore be for blasting and of 2 or 2¹⁄₂ inches diameter, three men will bore, at the rate of one foot per hour, to the depth of 6 or 7 feet; but if the bore be for a large blast of 13 or 14 feet deep, the hole must be 3¹⁄₂ inches in diameter at the top (diminishing to 2³⁄₄ inches at bottom), and will employ three men working hard between two and three days. Bores of that sort, indeed, cannot be made (at least by hand) to a greater depth than 14 or 15 feet, as the weight of a rod of iron, 17 feet in length, and 2 inches in diameter, makes it quite unmanageable for one man either to turn or to lift; while, from its great mass, the strokes of the mallproduce little effect on it. The malls used in boring holes, which require three men, are 7 or 8 lb. weight, having handles 3 feet long (fig. No. 15), and are swung over the shoulder, while striking fordown bores, in the same manner as a smith’s forehammer is used. An expert cutter with the wedges will make good wages by cutting holes at the rate of 2¹⁄₂d. for a dozen of holes, taking light and heavy cuts as they come to hand.

No. 15.Three-men mall

No. 15.

What has been said above of boring and blasting refers only todownrightor vertical bores; but, in the lower parts of a quarry, it is often necessary to have recourse to what are calledbreast-bores, from their running in a nearly horizontal direction and piercing the front or breast of the rock. Those bores are not so easily made as thedownrightbores and, in general, are only used where the rock is low, or in taking up bottom rock. They can seldom be carried to a greater depth than about 9 or 10 feet, owing to the difficulty of turning the jumper, and can never be bored quite horizontally, but require as much dip as will retain a little water in the hole to keep the jumper moving. Instead of throwing the mass outward, as is done bydown-bores, thosebreast-boresgenerally only cut or break the stone in the direction or line of the bore, so that the block always requires to be afterwards removed bybulling, in the manner already described.

Dressing of the Lighthouse blocks.The dressing of the blocks for the Lighthouse Tower, as already mentioned, was one of the most important operations in the workyard at Hynish; and as no writer with whom I am acquainted has given any account of the mode now practised of dressing granite, I hope I shall be excused for attempting, in this place, to give some idea of the method employed by the masons of Aberdeenshire, whose skill in that department of workmanship is well known both in our own and in other countries. As the whole of the materials for the Tower were to be dressed in such a manner as to avoid the necessity of any fitting on the Rock, bythe introduction of what are technically calledclosers, the greatest accuracy in the formation of the moulds from which the stones were to be shaped became necessary. With that view, I had atrainerorradiusmade with a moveablevernier, capable of sliding along it, so as to give the differences between thereadingsof the feet, as far as to thethirtiethpart of an inch; and I was thus enabled to lay off thebatteror slope on each course (according to the quantities in theTable of Co-ordinatesin theAppendix) with great nicety, and so to trace very distinctly the contour of the intended column.[22]On the stone floor of an apartment in one of the workshops, thequadrantof each course of the building was carefully drawn out, at full size, and divided into the sectors which were required for preserving a duebondamong the joints of the adjoining courses. The form of each stone in the tower having been thus determined by those full-sized draughts, moulds, representing thebedsandsidesof each stone, were prepared according to them, of seasoned timber, well shielded at the angles with sheet-iron, to prevent their being injured. Those moulds having been marked with reference to the number of the course, and the position of the stones in the wall, were given to the foreman of the workyard, who regulated the work of each of the stone-cutters, often to the number of 70 men. A proper block having been selected for each stone, leaving about 1¹⁄₂ inch all round the extremity of the moulds when applied to its several faces, it was conveyed, by means of the sling-cart, to the shed where it was to be dressed. The shed for dressing granite stones differs in no respect from an ordinary mason’s shed, except in its greater height; but, as the stone cutter, in order to wield his tools to advantage, must, at certain parts of the work, stand on the top of the block, it has been found, that a height of about 15 feet is required for the back-wall of agranite mason’s shed. Each man also requires, for large blocks, a space of about 10 feet (measured along the front of the shed), as his peculiar territory.

[22]Such nicety, I would observe, was by no means superfluous, because the arrangements of the Tower precluded the possibility of using a trainer in building; and as the whole was done by means ofplumb-templets, the greatest accuracy in tracing the curve of the Tower became necessary, as the only true basis of good workmanship on the Rock.

When a block has been brought to the shed, the first thing to be done, if it is a large stone of 1¹⁄₂ or 2 tons weight, is to lay it nearly level on the ground, with the side which is to be first dressed uppermost. The form orplanis then sketched upon it according to the mould, and the stone isblockedout with a large hammer weighing 30 or 35 lb. (fig. No. 16), which is the most suitable weight for ordinary men, although a stout man will manage one of 40 lb. well enough, if the block be lying in an advantageous position. When the stone has been thus rudelyblockedout, it is set upon its edge with a gentle inclination to one side, so that the mason, who mounts on the top of it, may conveniently use a pick of 18 lb. weight, having a handle three feet long, to dress off very roughly the most prominent parts of its irregular surface. In doing that he makes a great many deep ruts in a downward direction, at the same time taking care that none of them shall be so deep as to fall below the general surface of the stone when finished. When he has in that style dressed as far down the surface of the stone as he can conveniently reach, (and that is generally about half way,) the stone is then thrown over and set up on the opposite edge, when he again mounts upon it, and goes over the rest of the surface in the same manner, until the whole shall be reduced to one rough plane, so that in spite of numerous partial inequalities, the general face may be straight, or what is technically termedout of winding. A stone in that state is also said to bewell opened.

No. 16.Heavy hammerNo. 17.two feet pick

No. 16.Heavy hammer

No. 16.

No. 17.two feet pick

No. 17.

No. 18.Chisel or punch

No. 18.

The next step is to raise the stone so that it may incline at about 30° or 40° with the horizon; after which the mason, standing at the higher side, commences to put on thedraughtsorguide-linesall round the edge of the face which he has justopened. For that purpose he first employs a pick of about 12 lb. weight, having a handle about 2 feet in length (fig. No. 17), with which he dresses a band of about 3 inches broad, taking care that this band or draught be straight andout of winding. He then, with the pick, goes over the whole face between the draughts, dressing off all the ridges which still remain between the ruts which he had made while the stone was standing on edge, as before noticed, so that the whole surface will present the appearance of a pretty regularlydabbedface. Having arrived at that stage, he next proceeds to put on thetrue draughts(as round the edges of the stone, as in the case of theguide-lines), with the cast-steel chisel orpunch(a,a′,fig. No. 18), and a small iron-mall of 3¹⁄₂ lb. weight; and afterwards with the axe, he carefullyaxesa band about 2¹⁄₂ inches broad, so as to be quite out of winding, and as straight as possible all round. The dressing is then completed between those bands. If the block be a broad one, the mason will probably be able to take in only one half of the face at a time; and, in that case, the stone must be let down at the high side, and the other one raised as high as may be necessary to enable him to work to advantage. If the surface thus dressed, which is in this case supposed to be the largest side, be intended for thebedof a stone, the knobs or high points between thepick-dabsare merely roughly dressed down with a blunt axe, so as to be all as low as the axed lines or draughts round the extremities, and thus to present no convexity on which the stone, when laid, could rock; but if the surface should be meant for a fineface, the dressing must be commenced with a bluntish axe, taking care that all the axe marks be made quite across the stone, at right angles to the side where the workman stands. The whole face having been once gone over in that manner with a blunt axe, a sharper and well ground axe isnext used for crossing the first axing in such a manner that all the second axe-marks may be inclined at an angle of 45°, or thereby, with the first. The whole face having been thus brought to a smoother and more uniform surface, the third and last axing follows; and then the mason uses his shortest and lightest axe, which must, for that work, be well ground and sharp. That axing must be done right across the block, or in the same direction as the first axing had been done, and in that state the surface of the stone may be supposed to be fine enough for most kinds of work used in housebuilding or in public works; but for very fine work, such as some sepulchral monuments, or for surfaces which are afterwards to be polished, it is not unusual to axe four or even five times, care being always taken that how often soever that operation may be performed, the axing should never be made twice consecutively in the same direction, for by that precaution alone can a true and even surface be obtained. (The form of the axe is shewn infig. No. 19.)

No. 19.Mason's axe

No. 19.

No. 20.Chipper or pincher

No. 20.

The dressing of the first face being finished in the manner described, the block is laid flat on the ground, and the plan or form of the stone is then accurately drawn on it, according to the mould, with some substance that makes a bright or good mark, such as a piece of tile ground sharp, or a thin splinter of logwood. If there be muchwasteto be taken off beyond the lines so drawn, a hammer, whose weight must be in proportion to the piece to be struck off, is applied; but care must be taken not to come too near the lines with the hammer, and it is generally safe to leave at least an inch outside of them. The piece which is left gives a good hold for thechipperorpincher(fig. No. 20), which is next carefully applied along the line, being steadily held within one hand, and with the other sharply struck with a small iron mall of 3¹⁄₂ lb. weight, having a short handle about 8 inches in length. While thechipperreceives sharp strokes in succession with the mall,it must be slowly moved several times along the line from one end of the stone to the other, till the piece projecting beyond the line, or a part of it, breaks off. Such is the power of this small instrument, that it not infrequently cuts down to a depth of 9 or even 12 inches, thereby doing more execution and to greater purpose, than a heavy hammer can generally accomplish, even in the hands of a skilful workman. Thechipperis a tool lately introduced; but has now become a most important article in every hewer’skit. It makes a regular and clean cut, and leaves little to be done by the punches and chisels (fig. No. 18, in p. 122), in preparing thearrisof the next face of the stone. The block is now raised a little from the ground, and the workman standing at its higher side, the axing of which he has just finished, puts on with the punches and chisel a fine band or draught along the side next to that just dressed. He then applies to the finished face thesquareorbevel, according to the inclination of the faces, and dresses a band across the stone at each end of the block; and, finally, joins those two cross bands by means of another band along the back. In that way the external draughts on the second side are completed. He then with the pick and axe dresses away the material between those draughts until the second face is finished; and the same process is repeated for each side of the block which requires to be dressed. If the block be a large one, and it require to be dressed on all its sides, it will, lastly, be cut to the proper thickness or height, which is regulated by means of a gauge, known, in the technical language of the shed, as “a grippers” (fig. No. 21),[23]from its embracing the stone on three sides. It is simply a three-sided iron templet, having one long and one short tail (at right angles to the connecting piece), the space between the two tails shewing the thickness of the stone.

[23]The figure shews “a grippers” for a stone 14 inches thick.

No. 21.Grippers

No. 21.

The practical reader will readily see, that what has been said above about the hewing of granite, is chiefly applicable to the dressingof the large stones used in public works, such as docks, bridges, or marine towers; and it may be proper to add, that such heavy materials are always dressed on the ground, and that a piece of wood is placed under each end of the stone as a necessary precaution to prevent its being split by the blows of the mall. In dressing the lighter materials for house building, where a good deal of fine work is generally required, the stones are laid on what is called abanker, similar to that which is used in hewing freestone. The banker is a bench of stone 2¹⁄₂ or 3 feet long, and 2 feet broad, and is raised about 2 feet above the ground, so as to suit the workman’s convenience.

In dressing one of the outside stones of the first or lowest courses of the Skerryvore Tower, a mason was occupiedeighty-fivehours (see Plans of courses,Plate VIII.); and in dressing one of the largest of the hearting or inner stones of the same courses,fifty-fivehours. But as the work proceeded, owing to the greater readiness which the men had acquired in the application of the moulds, gauges and bevels, the time occupied, gradually decreased to the extent of aboutten hoursfor each stone, until the work had been carried on as far as to the thirteenth course, where the number of outside stones was reduced to twenty-four, at which stage of the work, the time required for dressing increased to aboutone hundred and twenty hoursfor each outside stone. From that point upwards, the time again gradually decreased till we reached the sixty-fourth course, where it may be stated, that, on an average, a man was employedsixty-threehours in dressing each stone; but the time gained in the last instance seemed to depend less on the readier application of the implements, than on the gradual diminution in the size of the stones, which, from that level upwards, decreased along with the thickness of the wall. But above the sixty-fourth course, a very marked increase in the time of dressing took place, owing to the introduction of theribband or ring joggles(shewn in the Plans of the 84th and 94th courses,Plate VIII.); and to the substitution of thedovetailed jogglesin the place of thesquareordiamond joggles, which were used in the lower parts of the building. The timerequired for dressing a stone of the sixty-fifth course wasninety-threehours of one man, a circumstance which strikingly shews, that a small, and, apparently, trifling alteration in the style of workmanship may sometimes increase to a considerable extent, the expense of a great work. Each radiating stone of theeighty-fourthcourse, which forms the floor that goes quite through the wall, requiredone hundred and sixty-one hoursfor its completion; and the other radiating floor-stones, which did not pass quite through the wall to the outside, occupied one man aboutone hundred and twenty hours. Each centre stone of the floors into which the others were dovetailed, required aboutthree hundred and twenty hoursof one man’s time. The time of a labourer occupied in cutting a hole for the dovetailed Lewis bats, by which the stones were raised, was aboutthree hours.

The tools necessary fully to equip a granite mason are as follows:—One dressing hammer about 16 or 18 lb. weight; 6 dressing picks, from 12 to 20 lb. weight; one small hand-mall, or mash-hammer, about 4 lb. weight; 3 stone axes about 7 lb.; 16 or 18 cast-steel punches and chisels, with one or two chippers or pinchers of 2¹⁄₂ lb. weight. One large blocking-hammer of 30 or 32 lb., may very well serve for eight men. The value of a granite mason’skitmay be estimated, when in good working order, at about L.7. A very great revolution has taken place during a few years in the method of working granite. The most important change is the substitution of the hand-mall and chisel in the operation of putting thedraftsor bands on the stones, in place ofarris-picks, which made the workmanship clumsy, tedious and imperfect, by slowly grinding down the stone at a great expense of labour to the hewer, who was forced to remain bent forward in an irksome posture, without the relief which is obtained by occasionally shifting his position, a change, which, every one who has been long employed in any laborious occupation, knows well how to value. The introduction of thechippermay also be regarded as one of the most important modern improvements in the art of working granite; andhad it not been for those changes, the actual expense of dressing the blocks for the Skerryvore Tower, as ascertained from the journals of the works, would have been exceeded by a sum of between L.4000 and L.5000; and it may even be questioned whether it would have been at all practicable with such tools to cut the dovetailed spaces of the floors out of the solid stone.

Excavation of Foundation for the Lighthouse Tower on the Skerryvore Rock.The excavation of the foundation of the Lighthouse Tower was the first operation which engaged my attention at Skerryvore Rock, at the beginning of the season of 1839. It was commenced on the 6th of May, and was continued up to the last hour of our remaining on the Rock, on the 3d of September. A more unpromising prospect of success in any work than that which presented itself at the commencement of our labours, I can scarcely conceive. The great irregularity of the surface, and the extraordinary hardness and unworkable nature of the material, together with the want of room on the Rock, greatly added to the other difficulties and delays, which could not fail, even under the most favourable circumstances, to attend the excavation of a foundation-pit on a rock at the distance of 12 miles from the land. The Rock, as already noticed, is a hard and tough gneiss, and required the expenditure of aboutfour timesas much labour and steel for boring as are generally consumed in boring the Aberdeenshire granite.

After a careful survey of the Rock, and having fully weighed all the risks of injuring the foundation, I determined at once to enter upon a horizontal cut, so as to lay bare a level floor of extent sufficient to contain the foundation pit for the Tower. The very rugged and uneven form of the Rock made this an almost necessary precaution, in order to prevent any misconception as to its real state, for it was traversed by numerous veins and bands inclined at various angles, on the position and extent of which the stability of the foundation in no small degree depended. That operation occupied 30 men for 102 days, and required the firing of no fewer than 246 shots, chiefly horizontal, while the quantity of material removed did not greatly exceed 2000 tons. It was a work of somehazard; for the small surface of the Rock confined us within 30, and sometimes within a dozen yards of the mines, while its form afforded us no cover from the flying splinters. The only precautions we could adopt were to cover the mines with mats and with coarse nets, which I had caused to be made during the previous winter, of the old ropes of one of the Lighthouse Tenders, and in each blast to apportion very carefully the charge of powder to the work that was to be done. That was managed with great skill by Charles Barclay, the foreman of the quarriers, who charged all the bores, and, along with myself, fired all the shots. So completely did the simple expedient of covering the bores with nets and mats check the flight of the stones, that, except on one or two occasions, none of the splinters reached us, and all the damage done was a slight injury to one of the cranes. Perhaps, also, our safety may, in some measure, be attributed to a change which I introduced into the mode of charging the horizontal shots, by which all the risk of pushing home the powder in the ordinary mode with thetamping rodis avoided. That change consisted in using a kind of shovel, formed of a rod, armed with a hollow half-cylinder of sheet copper, which contained the powder, and being inverted by giving the rod half a turn round its axis, made the powder drop out when the cylinder reached the bottom of the bore. It was, in all respects, excepting size, the same as the charging-rod used for great guns. The amount of materials removed by blasting, as nearly as I could ascertain, was only about 1000 cubic yards; and, taking all the circumstances into account, it may be doubted whether there be any instance in modern engineering of an operationof so small an extentoccupying so much time, and involving so great risk. The blasting of the Rock, however, was not the only difficulty with which we had to contend, for it also became necessary to remove the quarried materials, amounting to about 2000 tons, into the deep water round us, to prevent their being thrown by the waves upon the Rock, and so endangering the future temporary Barrack. That was rather a laborious work, and occupied two cranes, with temporary runs and trucks,during the greater part of the time we spent on the Rock. I am well aware that the quantity of materials which I have just mentioned, will be apt to produce a smile from those who have been chiefly conversant with the gigantic but simple operations which generally characterize the great railways of this country; but if it be remembered that we were at the mercy of the winds and waves of the wide Atlantic, and were every day in the expectation of a sudden call to leave the Rock, and betake ourselves to the vessel, and on several occasions had our cranes and other tools swept into the sea, the slowness of our progress will excite less surprise; and still less will those who duly weigh the dangers of our daily life, both in our little vessel and on the Rock, and who, at the same time, reflect on the many striking proofs which we almost every hour experienced of the care of an Almighty hand, be disposed to withhold their sympathy from the heartfelt expressions of gratitude which often went round our little circle in the boats, as we rowed in the twilight from the Rock to the ship. Isolation from the world, in a situation of common danger, produces amongst most men a freer interchange of the feelings of dependence on the Almighty, than is common in the more chilly intercourse of ordinary life.

With a view to lessen the dangers of blasting in such a situation, I had provided a galvanic battery on the plan proposed by Mr Martyn Roberts, but I used it less frequently than I intended. The attachments of the wires were very liable to be broken from various causes, where there were many men congregated in a small space; and as we could not venture to leave the apparatus on the Rock, the frequent re-shipment of it in a heavy sea was another cause of the derangement of its parts. I soon, therefore, laid it aside, and only had recourse to it when any work was to be done under water, or in cases where the simultaneous firing of several mines (for which it is admirably adapted) was of importance in effecting any special purpose.

When the floor had been roughly levelled I again carefully surveyed the Rock, with the view of fixing precisely the site of the foundation-pit, and of taking advantage of its form and structure to adopt the largest diameter for the Tower of which the Rock would admit. In some places I found that parts of the Rock, apparently solid, had been undermined by the constant action of the waves, to the distance of 13 feet inward from its face; but none of those cavernous excavations reached the main nucleus, so that, after much deliberation and repeated examinations of all the veins and fissures, I was enabled to mark out a foundation-pit 42 feet in diameter, on one level throughout. That was a point of no small importance; and although it had cost great labour at the very outset, much time was saved by it in the subsequent stages of the work. Not only was the labour thereby avoided of cutting the rock into separate terraces, and fitting the blocks to each successive step, as was done by Smeaton at the Eddystone; but the certainty that we had a level foundation to start from, enabled us at once to commence the dressing of stones without regard to any irregularities in the surface of the Rock; and the building operations, when once commenced, continued unimpeded by the necessity for accommodating the courses to their places in the foundation-pit, so that the Tower soon rose above the level, at which there was the greatest risk of the stones being removed by the waves before the pressure of the superincumbent building had become great enough to retain them in their places.

The outline of the circular foundation pit, 42 feet in diameter, having been traced with a trainer on the rock, numerous jumper-holes were bored in various places, having their bottoms all terminating in one level plane, so as to serve as guides for the depth to which the basin was to be excavated. The depth did not exceed 15 inches below the average level, already laid bare by the cutting of the rough horizontal floor which has just been described; and before the close of the season of 1839, aboutone-thirdof the area ofthe circle had been cleared, and was ready for the final pick-dressing which prepared it for the reception of the first course. The excavation of this circular basin was conducted with the greatest caution, and few shots were permitted to be fired lest the foundation should in any place be shaken by the action of the gunpowder on any of the natural fissures of the Rock. The work was chiefly done by means of what are calledplugs and feathers, the form of which has already been shewn in the woodcuts (No. 12, p. 115). In that part of the work the bores were nearly horizontal, and the action of theplug and featherswas to throw up a thin superficial shelf or paring of rock of from 6 to 12 inches in depth, and not more than 2 feet square. By that painful process an area of about 1400 superficial feet was cleared. The chief trouble connected with that operation was cutting, by means of the pick, a vertical face for the entrance of the horizontaljumpersor boring rods; and wherever advantage could be taken of natural fissures it was gladly done. Another considerable source of labour was the dressing of the vertical edges of the basin, as that implied cutting asquare check, 15 inches deep and about 130 feet long, in the hardest gneiss rock; and the labour attending which, can only be fully estimated by a practical stone-cutter who has wrought in such a material. The plan employed was to bore all around the periphery of the circle, 1⁵⁄₈ inch vertical jumper-holes, 6 inches apart, to the required depth, and to cut out the stone between them. The surface thus left was afterwards carefully dressed, so as to admit vertical and horizontal moulds, representing truly the form of the masonry which the check was intended to receive. The experience of the labour attending that operation gave me great reason for congratulation on having adopted a foundation on one level throughout, instead of cutting the rock into several terraces, at each of which the same labour of cutting angular checks must necessarily have been encountered. The cutting of the foundation occupied 20 men for 217 days in all, whereof 168 days were in the season of 1839, and the rest in the summer of 1840.

The minute details given in my account of the destruction of the first Barrack, have entirely superseded the need for any particular description of the fitting up of the second Barrack on the Rock; and I shall therefore confine myself to a brief notice of the work in the chronological order in which it occurred.Fitting up of the Second Barrack on the Rock.On the 1st of July, after the level floor for the foundation of the Tower had been roughly cleared, and all risk of injury from the firing of mines was past, the boring of holes for the fixtures of the second Barrack was begun; and so great were our exertions, that in the short period of fourteen days, the pyramidal frame-work on which the Barrack-house was to stand (seePlate V.), consisting of 13 beams, of about 50 feet in length, with all their braces, ties and stancheons, and the malleable iron cap which secured their union at the top, was firmly fixed on the Rock. After the pyramid was completed, the Barrack-house (which had previously been removed from North Bay, where, as already noticed, it had served as a temporary abode for the men who opened the quarries there), was transported, piece-meal, from Hynish to the Rock as required; for it was not considered prudent, after the experience of last year, to trust, even in the finest part of the season, a great quantity of timber tolashingson the Rock. The fitting-up of the Barrack-house was completed on the 3d September and occupied only eleven days; so that the whole work extended to only twenty-five days, a remarkably short time for such a work, in such a situation. That despatch, indeed, was only obtained by working (as we did both during the excavation of the foundation and the erection of the Barrack), at all times when the weather would permit, from four o’clock in the morning till eight, and even nine in the evening, with an interval of only half-an-hour for breakfast and the same for dinner. The erection of the Barrack was a work of great difficulty and anxiety; for, as every thing depended on the exact union of all its parts, the slightest error in any dimension would have stopped the work until it could be remedied, a delay which, in such a situation, would, at certain stages of its progress,have proved fatal to the whole structure.Sudden death of George Middlemiss.I cannot, therefore, omit this opportunity of paying a tribute, in passing, to the memory of the late Mr George Middlemiss, the foreman of the carpenters who fitted up the Barrack, whose zeal for the completion of the work was very conspicuous. Poor Middlemiss died very suddenly at Hynish, about a fortnight after the completion of his labours on the Rock. He had received some instructions from me, so late as 11 o’clock, on the night of the 20th September; and when one of the men went to call him next morning at 6 o’clock, he was found dead, and in such a state as led Mr Moxey, the surgeon attached to the works, after a careful examination, to conclude, that he had died of paralysis of the heart, about three hours before he was found, or not more than four hours after I had seen him, to all appearance, in perfect health!

Wharf and Landing-place on the Rock.No inconsiderable part of the labour of this season was devoted to the clearing of the landing-place, which was formed in a natural creek (seePlate III.) and in excavating the rocks in front of the line of wharf, so as to admit the vessels carrying the building materials to come alongside of it. That work could only be done at certain times of tide and during very fine weather, and was, therefore, tedious as well as hazardous. After two entire days spent in cutting with a sickle, mounted on a long pole, the thick cover of gigantic sea-weed, which hid the true form of the Rock from view, we were able to mark out the line of the wharf; and after all the mines were bored and charged and the tide had risen, and every one had retired from the spot, the whole were fired at the same instant, by means of the galvanic battery, to the great amazement and even terror of some of the native boatmen, who were obviously much puzzled to trace the mysterious links which connected the drawing of a string at the distance of about 100 yards, with a low murmur, like distant thunder, and a sudden commotion of the waters in the landing-place, which boiled up, and then belched forth a dense cloud of smoke; nor was their surprise lessened,when they saw that it had been followed by a large rent in the rock; for so effectually had the simultaneous firing of the mines done its work, that a flat face for a quay had been cleared in a moment, and little remained to be done, to give the appearance of a regular wharf and to fit it for the approach of a stone lighter, except attaching wooden fenders and a trap ladder.

Ring-bolts, Water-Tanks, and Railways.A good deal of time was also spent in fixing a great many ring-bolts on various parts of the Rock and itsoutlyers, for the use of the shipping, which we expected to carry stones to the Rock the next season and in clearing a line for a permanent iron railway, about 50 yards long, from the landing wharf to the Tower, the position of which is shewn inPlate III.The railway was used for the conveyance of materials from the stone-lighters to the building, and is now thehighwayfor all the stores which pass from the wharf to the Tower. Means were also taken for laying down two cast-iron water-tanks on the Rock in tolerably sheltered positions, as shewn inPlate III.One of those tanks was completed and filled with water, but the sole-plate only of the other was fixed, as unfortunately one of the plates dropped from the vessel’s side into the water, while the seamen were lowering it into one of the boats, a loss which prevented the second tank from being finished till the next year. Those tanks, together, held about 900 gallons, and contained our chief supply of water during the whole subsequent progress of the works, when there were often about fifty men on the Rock.

Incidents of the Season.I shall conclude this Chapter, by noticing a few incidents which occurred during the season of 1839, serving, in some degree to throw light upon the peculiar difficulties we had to encounter, or tending to shew the importance of the work in which the Commissioners had engaged.

Effects of a gale from the S.W.On the 9th of August a strong gale suddenly sprang up from the S.W., which, while it lasted, caused us much alarm and anxiety at Hynish, whither we had been driven from our station at the Rock to seek shelter at the commencement of the storm. Severalsmall pieces of timber, which we had left on the Rock when we were forced to leave it, came ashore in Balaphuil Bay; and it was generally reported in the Island that the Barrack had, for the second time, been destroyed. That report I did not credit, as I had great confidence in the fixtures which attached it to the Rock; but my anxiety to ascertain the true state of the case, led me to examine the south-eastern shore of Tyree, when all that could be discovered was a few pieces of loose timber, and one of the smith’s cooling tubs, which had been washed from the Rock. Next day, however, the smith’s bellows came ashore in the same Bay, and so little injured, that we had them repaired and put in use again on the Rock. On the 12th of August, when the weather permitted us to return to our station at the Skerryvore, we found all the timbers which had been lashed down with chains to the Rock scattered in every direction around the beams of the Barrack, the smith’s forge overturned, the bellows of course gone; one of the cranes also which had been used for the removal of the excavated materials had been swept away, and not a vestige of it left, except a small piece of one of the wooden stays, which the force of the waves had broken. But that which most of all surprised us, and gave us the greatest concern, as an alarming proof of the force of the sea and a source of great inconvenience and hazard during the rest of the season, was the disappearance of our moorings, which had been lost by thefounderingof the cask buoy in the heavy surf which the gale had raised. During all the rest of our stay at the Rock that season, we were forced to ride at anchor in foul rocky ground of the worst and most irregular description, over which the vessel frequently drifted to a considerable distance, occasioning us no small fear for our safety. That was the second set of moorings which had disappeared at Skerryvore; and a stronger proof of the very great power of the western swell can hardly be imagined, as nothing of the kind had happened during the whole time the Bell Rock works were in progress. That circumstance also convinced us of the necessity ofadopting vessels of small burden for landing the materials. So great, indeed, was the difficulty ofhangingeven the boats at the Rock, that on two occasions (on the nights of the 4th May and 12th July) we had both the boats half filled by the sea, and nine or ten men thrown out on the Rock by thekantingof one of the boats at the recoil of the wave. The landing department was indeed, throughout the whole season, attended with great difficulty, and was to me a source of constant anxiety; for, in the daily transport to and from the vessel and the Rock of 30 men, unaccustomed to boating, during a period of four months, it was more than could have been expected that we should have been preserved from the loss of either life or limb. On the night of the 3d September, when we left our anchorage at the Skerryvore for the season, every heart was full of rejoicing, and many cordial expressions of gratitude to our Almighty Protector were uttered in deep whispers by the more seriously disposed men, whose number bore a goodly proportion to our whole band. I cannot omit saying, in this place, that both Mr Macurich, who acted as landing-master on the Rock, and the late Mr Heddle, the master of the steam-tender, conducted the boating department in a most masterly style.

As an aggravation of our difficulties, we were occasionally much annoyed by the unprincipled and cowardly conduct of a few of the seamen, who, despite the contempt of their comrades, fearing or pretending to fear the risk of lying all night so near the face of the Rock, spared no pains to spread alarm, and made several attempts,Mutiny of the Crew.by threatening desertion, to extort a rise of wages. They even spoke of leaving the vessel at the Rock, which they could easily have done by some of the native boats which called in passing to see the progress of the works; and Mr Heddle, the master of the steamer, was forced to dismiss the mutineers on the first occasion when the vessel was driven for shelter to the land, and to rely during the rest of the season on the native boatmen to supply their place. That firm conduct had, for some time afterwards, the desired effect on those who remained; but the spirit ofdisaffection having spread pretty widely, we had subsequently several other instances of sudden desertion from the service.

In the course of my residence for four months on board the tender moored off the Rock, I had opportunities of witnessing many proofs of the great necessity which existed for a Light on the Skerryvore; and if I had ever entertained any doubt as to the beneficial effects of such an establishment, the experience of the season of 1839 must have entirely removed it.Near approach of Vessels to the Rock, and other circumstances shewing the importance of a Light on the Skerryvore.It often happened that for several days successively, not fewer than five or six vessels of large size, both outward and homeward bound, were visible at distances varying from 3 to 6 miles from the Rock; and much anxiety was often felt by us for the safety of those vessels, several of which approached so near the outlying rocks as to keep us for some time in the most painful suspense. On two occasions, more especially, I was about to direct the steam to be raised, in order that the Skerryvore tender might be sent to warn the masters of vessels of their danger, or if too late for that, to afford them assistance in case of accident. On the 29th of May a large schooner, and on the 13th of June a large brig ran right down upon the westernoutlyers, calledFresnel’sRocks (which were covered at the time), and justput aboutin time to avoid striking; and on the 12th June, a fine foreign barque (apparently a Prussian) passed so close to Bo-Rhua as to leave us for a short time in doubt whether or not she had struck on it. On the 21st of June, also, a large brig came very near the rocks which lie off Tyree, at the base of Ben-Hynish, in trying to avoid Boinshley Rock, which lies about 5 miles to the N.W. of the Skerryvore. Those circumstances, together with the list of shipwrecks already given at page 23, afford strong proofs that the Skerryvore Rock occupies a most fatal position in a great fairway much frequented by large vessels bound to or from ports in the Irish Sea and in the Clyde.

There cannot be a doubt that many vessels have been wrecked on the Skerryvore and its numerousoutlyers, being borne down upon the reef by the strong tide which runs at the rate of betweenfour and five miles an hour at the height of spring tides; and the natives of Tyree have many stories about chains and anchors and hidden treasures, with which their fancy has filled every nook of the Rocks. To what extent those stories, which are often most circumstantially told, may be true, it is not easy to determine; but in the end of July 1839, we succeeded, under the guidance of a native boatman, in raising from a creek in one of the detached shelves to the south-west of the main Rock, an anchor worn by the action of the sea to a mere skeleton, a circumstance which so far corroborates the truth of their traditions.

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