me again, pawing out with his fore feet, and standing on his hind ones, while I, in the same attitude, waited his approach. But Bendall, finding his gun of no use one way, determined to try its service in another; and advancing boldly in front of me, dealt Bruin such a blow with the butt-end, that he rolled him over like a Dutch-cheese. At the same moment I whipped out my knife, and made a hole in the Bear’s body; while Bendall gave him another topper “for luck”—and Bruin was done for. The whole affair was most ludicrous, but almost too serious a joke. It however ended by our having some of the bear’s haunch for our supper. And I can tell you, my young friends, that bear’s haunch is most delicious eating. [Illustration] [Illustration] Something about Lighthouses. Lighthouses were in use with the ancients. The towers of Sestos and Abydos, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the well-known tower in the island of Pharos, off Alexandria, are examples. Suetonius also mentions a lofty tower at Ostia, and another on the coast of Batavia, erected for the purpose of guiding the mariners by night. In lighting a great extent of coast, it becomes necessary to provide for the distribution of lighthouses in such a manner, that they may be readily distinguished from each other, and, at the same time, so disposed, as not to leave vessels without some point by which to direct their course. One of the most extraordinary lighthouses on our iron-bound coast, stands on a reef of rocks called the Eddystone, in the English Channel, about ten miles from the Land’s End, in Cornwall. It was erected by Mr. Smeaton, in 1759, and still remains a lasting monument of his scientific skill. It consists of four rooms, surmounted by a gallery and lanthorn. The floors are of stone, flat on the surface, but concave beneath, and are kept from pressing against the sides of the building, by means of a chain which is let into the walls. The entire edifice is about eighty feet in height, and yet, such is the immense power of the wind in the neighbourhood of the rocks, that the waves are seen to ascend like a cupola, considerably above the lanthorn at the top. The appearance of this is truly wonderful and sublime. [Illustration]