We have spoken of the patriarch of the French lighthouses, the venerable Tower of Cordova; it would be unfair to forget the youngest of the family, that of New Caledonia. Independently of the services which it renders in the region it illuminates, this edifice has, so to speak, a physiognomy of its own: it is built of iron, and structures of this material are sufficiently rare to justify us in devoting a few lines to its description. Iron is not so suitable as stone for the construction of lighthouses; it is not so durable, it is more expensive in working and repairing, and it affords a less efficacious protection against the thermometrical variations of the atmosphere. Yet under certain circumstances our engineers gladly have recourse to it. It has given rise to various systems of construction. One of these, invented by Mr. Mitchell, has been successfully applied in several instances in England; and has been adopted in France for the lighthouse of Walde, kindled in 1859 to the north of Calais, on a sandy shore stretching far out into the sea; and for the lighthouse erected on the rock of the Enfant Perdu (coast of Guiana). It consists of iron pillars protected in the lower part by strong metal screws, strengthened by cross bars and St. Andrew’s crosses, and surmounted, at a suitable distance above the sea-level, by a platform which supports the rooms of the keepers. The whole erection is crowned by the lantern. Since we are speaking of this pharos of the Enfant Perdu, let us say how difficult a task was its construction. “More than once,” writes Vivian, the chief engineer of Cayenne, “it was necessary, in order to fix a running hawser for landing purposes, that stout and courageous men should resolutely dash into the sea, and swim with a rope to the shore. The risk of being flung against the rocks was not the least they ran, for, as at the bar of the Senegal, sharks abound in these regions. The ebb and flow render navigation very difficult; more than one of the men were wounded, and we may say that all sported with their lives.” Yet here, as elsewhere, resolution, industry, and perseverance have triumphed over every obstacle. The framework of the pharos at Port de France, New Caledonia, like that of the Roches-Douvres, is made up of sixteen uprights, each composed of fourteen pannels. Each pannel is formed of T irons, consolidated and riveted together in such a manner as to be perfectly firm—an object fully attained, for the oscillations experienced in lighthouses of stone are in this scarcely discernible. These pannels are pinned one upon another, while cross bars applied both within and without, and likewise pinned, keep the uprights in their position. Finally, on these latter cross bars, and on the inner sides of the uprights, rest the plates of sheet iron constituting the walls, or sides, whose joints are covered by iron platbands, fixed by bolts. * * * * *