David Stevenson

“ Clerk truly—although perhaps unconsciously—characterised the man, in his terse statement of what would be required of him: “The work is unique—ordinary experience can do little for it—all must depend on energy and perseverance.” No one can read Mr. Stevenson’s “Account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse” without perceiving the justness of this estimate of the difficulties that lay before him, and his ability to overcome them. ”

“ Again, if the advantages of carriage by the railway and the common road be compared, it will be found that the proportion is at the rate of about one to seven, also in favour of the railway.
“The economy of carriage on the railway, when fully contrasted with that of the canal, is also much greater. It may now, indeed, be considered as a generally received opinion, that, unless for enabling sea-borne ships to pass from one side of the coast to another, so as to avoid a tedious or dangerous circumnavigation, the railway in every other case is preferable. ”

“ The present landing-slips or quays upon the Tay are situate at Dundee upon the north, and at Woodhaven and Newport on the south. The bed of the firth or river at Dundee is so much silted up and encumbered with sandbanks and mud, that the piers, which were no doubt originally built of sufficient extent, and perhaps commanding the necessary depth of water for floating the passage-boats at low tides, have at length become inadequate to so great a thoroughfare, and the boats are now left by the water at every spring-tide, to the great annoyance and inconvenience of the public. ”

“ Whether we consider the accuracy and beauty of the catoptric apparatus, the arrangements of the buildings, or the discipline observed by the lightkeepers of the Northern Lighthouses, we cannot fail to recognise the impress of that energetic and comprehensive cast of mind which directed the whole. Acting under the direction of an enlightened Board of Commissioners, my father may, with the strictest propriety, be said to have created the lighthouse system of Scotland. ”

“ Stevenson’s original appeal and subsequent personal friendly and free intercourse with the officials of the Admiralty led to the establishment, on a systematic footing, of our Government “Admiralty Survey,” which, as all engineers know, indicates with marvellous accuracy and detail every shoal, sunken rock, and sounding on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland; and from which the “Admiralty Sailing Directions” have been prepared with such discernment and care that the whole system of our coast survey may now be said to have attained perfection. ”

“ Examples of narrowing streets are not uncommon, as Great Pulteney Street in Bath, and Blackfriars and Westminster Bridge Streets in London. The reporter, however, confesses that he is not induced to consider sixty feet, or even seventy-five feet, as the most desirable breadth for the new bridge from any views of elegance; with him the reduction of the width of the street is proposed rather from motives of economy to insure the success of a great measure, than from choice in making the design. ”

“ But in so extensive a concern as the system of roads, involving so great an expense, we may naturally look for small beginnings and very gradual advancement. Accordingly, we find in the first formation of highways, before their utility could be fully understood or experience had shown the benefits of science in the practice of the engineer, the early road-maker only increased the breadth of the horse-track, and strewed it over with gravel from the neighbouring brook. ”

“ On a level railway, it may be concluded that a good horse managed by a man or lad will work with eight tons. At this rate the work performed on the railway by one man and a horse is more than in the proportion of one third of the work done upon the canal by three persons and a horse, if we take into account the more speedy rate of travelling and the facilities to general trade in loading and discharging, together with the difference of the first cost of a railway, which altogether give it in some cases a decided advantage over the navigable canal. ”

“ In Great Britain the road department, after much experience, is now brought into a system by which the highways are made and upheld by dues directly levied on those who travel or use them,—excepting, indeed, such roads as are situated in very remote parts of the country, where the Government, with the most enlightened policy, has either executed the works directly by the troops upon the peace establishment, as in the case of General Wade’s army, or given aid towards the original formation of extensive lines of road, for opening the more remote districts of the country. ”

“ It seems necessary at this time, even before any Act is proposed for a public railway, that a Committee of the House should take the subject of regulating the width according to the number of tracks, and perhaps the strength of rails and weight to be carried on four wheels, in a public Act, otherwise much confusion will ensue. It will be a great loss if these railways, like the common road, should require to be altered that they may communicate with each other. ”

“ To improve this line of road still further by cutting deeper into the rock at the summit would not only create a great additional expense, but would place the road in a hollow, and shut out these characteristic views of the city which are the chief inducements to the new line of road.
“In determining the line of direction for the street from Shakespeare Square to Bridewell, it seems desirable that it should run in a straight line. The only objection to this is its interference with the Calton Burying-ground. ”

“ He thought a vessel or boat must have been wrecked upon the rock during the night; and it seemed probable that the rock might be strewed with dead bodies—a spectacle which could not fail to deter the artificers from returning so freely to their work. Even one individual found in this situation would naturally cast a damp upon their minds, and, at all events, make them much more timid in their future operations. In the midst of those reveries, the boat took the ground at an improper landing-place ”

“ Hitherto the industry of the Orcadians has been chiefly directed to farming pursuits; while the Shetlanders have been almost exclusively occupied in the cod, ling, and tusk fishing. It is doubtful, indeed, if, up to this period, there be a single boat belonging to the Shetland Isles which is completely equipped for the herring fishery. But on reaching Shetland another fleet of Dutch doggers was seen collecting in numbers off these islands—a coast which is considered a rich harvest in Holland. ”

“ But what ought to have been the feeling of thankfulness to that Providence which regulates and appoints the lot of man, when it is considered that if this accident had happened during the storm, or in the night after the wind had shifted, the floating light must inevitably have gone ashore upon the Bell Rock. In short, it is hardly possible to conceive any case more awfully distressing than our situation would have been,37 or one more disastrous to the important undertaking in which we were engaged. ”

“ In the present instance, however, it is not to the easiest line of draught as an approach to the city of Edinburgh that the Sheriff directs the attention of the reporter, but to a better access to the higher lands of Calton Hill, with a view to obtain a proper site for the new jail, and therefore only an eye view of the northern line of road is given. Yet when a communication is opened with the Calton Hill by a bridge from Princes Street, we may expect at some future day to see one continuous street or drive round the hill. ”

“ Under these circumstances, had the writer ventured to despatch one of the boats, in expectation of either working the Smeaton sooner up towards the rock, or in hopes of getting her boat brought to our assistance, this must have given an immediate alarm to the artificers, each of whom would have insisted upon taking to his own boat, and leaving the eight artificers belonging to the Smeaton to their chance. Of course, a scuffle might have ensued, and it is hard to say, in the ardour of men contending for life, where it might have ended. ”

“ A quay wall is to be constructed of hewn stone along the Helbre Island from the pier-head 600 yards to the tide lock, which is to be fifty feet wide, as at Wallasey; another tide lock of similar dimensions on the north side of the harbour. The north pier is only intended to be of rough stone; but a short covering pier will be made to protect that lock and facilitate the entry of ships. Above these locks the canal is to be formed into a tide basin of 500 yards in length, the level of which may be kept at that of the tide of the day ”

“ In all such attempts to ascend the greatest heights or penetrate the deepest excavations, we still breathe in our own element, though under different modifications. If, however, we would explore the depths of the Ocean, we immediately encounter an element to which the organisation of our lungs is not at all adapted; the density of air, compared with water on a level with the surface of the sea, being in the ratio of one to about 850; and our difficulties must consequently increase in a very rapid proportion. ”

“ Some drift stones of large dimensions, measuring upwards of thirty cubic feet, or more than two tons weight, have, during storms, been often thrown upon the rock from the deep water. These large boulder stones are so familiar to the lightkeepers at this station as to be by them termed travellers. It is therefore extremely probable, that a large portion of the débris is carried down with the drainage water of the higher country, as before noticed, and ultimately washed out of the North Sea into the expanse of the ocean. ”

“ There is, perhaps, no better criterion for judging of the prosperity of a country than by its public improvements; and were this subject considered in all its bearings, we should hardly be able to quote any stronger evidence of internal riches and true greatness, than we find connected with the subject of its public roads. It appears from a very general or cursory calculation,66 which the reporter has made, that the highways of Great Britain and Ireland, independently of the almost innumerable parish and private roads, extend to about 25,000 miles. ”

“ This coast, with its sandbanks in the offing, its submarine forest, and the evidence of living witnesses as to the encroachment of the sea upon the firm ground, is altogether highly interesting to the geological and scientific229 inquirer. The remains of forests in the bed of the ocean occur in several parts of the British coast, particularly off Lincoln, on the banks of the Tay near Flisk, at Skail in the mainland of Orkney, and in other places noticed in the Transactions of this Society, and are strong proofs of the encroachments of the sea upon the land. ”

“ The dispersion of fishes, evinced by their disappearance from the fishing grounds in stormy weather, tends to show the disturbance of the waters of the ocean to the depth of thirty or forty fathoms. This observation I have frequently had an opportunity of making near the entrance of the Firth of Forth. Numerous proofs of the sea being disturbed to a considerable depth have also occurred since the erection of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, situate upon a sunken rock in the sea, twelve miles off Arbroath, in Forfarshire. ”

“ In sailing from the southern side of the Tay for Dundee, it will on some occasions be found convenient, with certain directions of the wind and currents of the tide, to have landing-slips or piers both above and below the town of Dundee, so as to prevent the necessity of tacking with adverse winds, as is the case at present105 from the want of such accommodation. Upon examining the shores above or to the westward of Dundee, the most convenient position for a landing-slip is at the Magdalene Point, about 1400 yards to the westward of the Craig pier at Dundee. ”

“ The marine survey of the Highlands by Murdoch Mackenzie, undertaken by order of the Lords of the Admiralty, may be considered200 as the first grand step towards the improvement of the Highlands, and next to that the later institution of the Northern Lighthouses. By means of these the fisher may find his way from loch to loch, and the mariner bound over seas, instead as formerly of holding a course without the Lewis Islands, can now find his way through the Sounds, and in adverse winds take shelter in safe harbours, instead of being exposed to the boisterous seas of the Atlantic Ocean ”

“ Katherine’s Dock in London; behind these warehouses a parallel barge canal fit for river flats, forty feet wide, which will, as in Holland, be found146 a singular convenience. These canals communicate with a dock and basin for flats only, whence the barges may be let down into the creek during the ebb; and as they navigate at the lowest water they will be ready to pass up the Mersey with the first of the flood; and in like manner, coming down with the last of the ebb, will get into the pool and enter the dock without losing a tide. ”

“ Before the tide rose to its full height to-day, some of the artificers passed along the bridge into the lighthouse, to observe the effects of the sea upon it, and they reported that they had felt a slight tremulous motion in the building when great seas struck it in a certain direction about high-water mark. ”

“ He found that his first idea of tracks of iron and stone to improve the draught on common roads was not destined to meet the requirements of the future; and when as yet nothing was known of railways beyond the tramways connected with coal-fields, and no proposal had been made to adapt them to passenger traffic, Mr. Stevenson was engaged tracing in all directions through Scotland lines of railway as a new mode of conveyance to supersede roads. ”

“ Now, to what branch of political economy can we look with more certainty and propriety than to such splendid examples of the substantial wealth and resources of a country? for until a kingdom is traversed and laid open by roads, its government must be weak, and its people remain in a state of comparative poverty. ”

“ The expense of a little additional weight of cast iron, in the first instance, will be greatly compensated in the end, by avoiding frequent repairs, and will thereby be amply repaid, while the expense of laying the road, and other contingencies, are much the same in the light as in the heavy rail. The mode of fixing is another point of great importance in the construction of a substantial railway. In the early123 practice of laying railways, the value of this new discovery was for a time lost to the public, owing to the intricacy and difficulty of this part of the design. ”

“ Our knowledge of the bottom of the ocean, therefore, remains still very imperfect, and, with little exception, the simple apparatus of the mariner, consisting of a plummet and line, continues to be chiefly in use for ascertaining the depth of the sea and the nature of the ground. ”

“ A road composed of stones of various sizes can never be brought into that smooth and uniform surface, which is so much to be desired, for the moment the pressure is brought upon one of these out-sized stones, it must either be crushed under the wheel or be forced by repeated attacks into the road, and thereby it displaces the surrounding stones, and in either case admission is given to the surface-water; a pit is immediately formed, and every succeeding wheel widens the breach, until the road is rendered impassable. ”

“ Stevenson visited the island, with a view to its purchase by the Commissioners, he was told by the keeper, that in violent gales the fire only kindled on the leeward side, and that he was in the habit of putting his hand through the windward bars of the chauffer to steady himself while he supplied the fire with coals, so that in the direction in which it was most wanted hardly any light was visible. Nothing can be worse than any variableness or uncertainty in the appearance of a light. ”