This measure having been resolved on by the Board, the plans were remitted, with powers to proceed, to Mr William Rae, (now Sir William Rae, Bart. Lord Advocate of Scotland,) who was then Sheriff of the county of Orkney. The works at the Start Point were accordingly commenced early in the summer of 1805; by the month of November the light-room was finished, and the light exhibited on the 1st day of January 1806. Intimation was at the same time given to the public, that the beacon or tower of masonry erected in the year 1803, upon the island of Sanday, having been found insufficient for preventing the numerous shipwrecks upon the low shores of that island, had been converted into a light-house. [Sidenote: Description of Start Point Light.] The Start Point of Sanday is situate in the county of Orkney, in North Lat. 59° 20´, and Long. 2° 34´ west of London, from which North Ronaldsay light-house Tower bears by compass, N. NE. ½ E., distant 8 miles, and the Lamb Head of Stronsay SW., distant 15 miles. The light at the Start Point is from oil with reflectors, elevated 100 feet above the medium level of the sea, and is visible from all points of the compass, at the distance of 15 miles, in a favourable state of the atmosphere. To distinguish this light from the other lights on this coast, it is known to mariners as a _Revolving light, without colour_, exhibiting a brilliant light once in every minute, and becoming gradually less luminous; to a distant observer it totally disappears. In this manner, each periodic revolution of the reflector-frame, alternately shows a brilliant light, and a light becoming fainter and more obscure, until it be totally eclipsed. [Sidenote: The Foreman and Artificers sail for Leith in the Traveller.] The alteration of the Start Point beacon into a light-house, and the erection of houses for the light-keepers, were placed under the management of Mr George Peebles, an experienced mason, and executed with every possible attention. When the works were completed, he, and such of the artificers as had been retained, proceeded to Stromness on the mainland of Orkney, from whence they were most likely to get a passage to the southward. The party consisted of six in number; and Charles Peebles, the foreman’s brother, wishing to go directly to his native place, took his passage in a vessel bound from Stromness to Anstruther, while Mr George Peebles, and the remaining four men, embarked on board of a schooner, called the Traveller, Cruickshanks master, bound for Leith. [Sidenote: The Traveller is wrecked.] [Sidenote: Captain Manby’s Apparatus much wanted.]