Account of the Skerryvore lighthouse : $b with notes on the illumination of lighthousesStevenson, Alan
History
Account of the Skerryvore lighthouse : $b with notes on the illumination of lighthouses
Stevenson, Alan
Skerryvore Lighthouse (Hebrides, Scotland)
The surface of the main or principal rock, on which the Lighthouse has
been placed, measures, at the lowest tides, about 280 feet square. It
is extremely irregular, and is intersected by many gullies or fissures,
of considerable breadth, and of unlooked for depth, and which leave
it solid only to the extent of 160 feet by 70 feet. The extremity of
one of these gullies, at the south-east corner of the rock, forms the
landing-creek, which is a narrow track of 30 feet wide, having deep
water; and, with the help of some artificial clearing and dressing,
which was executed with much difficulty, by blasting under water,
while the other works were in progress, its sides and bottom are now
comparatively smooth. At this place a landing can often be effected
when the rock is unapproachable from any other quarter, although great
inconvenience is felt from the surge, which finds its way from the
opposite side of the rock, through the westward opening of the gulley
in which the landing-place is situated.
* * * * *
Another of the gullies, immediately to the south-east of the
Lighthouse, was found, on examination, to undermine the rock to the
extent of eight or ten feet, and to terminate in a hollow submarine
chamber, which threw up a spout or jet of water about twenty feet high,
resembling in appearance the Geyser of Iceland, and accompanied by a
loud sound like the snorting of some sea monster. The effect of this
marine _jet d’eau_ was at times extremely beautiful, the water being
so much broken as to form a snow-white and opaque pillar, surrounded
by a fine vapour, in which, during sunshine, beautiful rainbows
were observed. But its beauties by no means reconciled us to the
inconvenience and discomfort it occasioned, by drenching us whenever
our work carried us near it. One calm day I contrived, at a very low
tide, by means of ropes and a ladder, to explore the interior of the
cavern, from which this fountain rose, and found it to terminate in a
polished spherical chamber, about seven feet in diameter, its floor
filled with boulders, whose incessant play had hollowed it out of the
veined rock, and rendered its interior beautifully smooth and glassy.
As I considered that this curious cavern penetrated too far, and came
too close to what I had selected as the best foundation, I changed the
site of the tower, so as to avoid any chance of its being undermined.
I also deemed it prudent to fill up the cavity, to prevent its further
extension, and at the same time to rid ourselves of the discomfort of
being drenched by the column of water which spouted up from it, even
during fine weather, when the sea was apparently calm. This gulley
affords a good example of the power of pebbles kept constantly in play
by the waves to wear down the hardest rock, and shews what extensive
effects so insignificant an agent may effect in the course of time.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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