Having during two seasons landed and built up more than one thousand four hundred tons of stone, while the work was low down in the water, and before the beacon had been rendered inhabitable, and as not more than seven hundred tons were required to complete the masonry, Mr. Stevenson had good reason to conclude that another season would consummate his enterprise. But the success of the work absolutely depending on the stability of the beacon, he paid frequent visits to the rock in the course of the winter, to see that it braved unhurt the fury of winds and waves.
THE BUILDING OF THE BELL ROCK LIGHTHOUSE.
The operations of the fourth and last season were commenced on the 10th of May. The artificers took permanent possession of the beacon, which consisted at this time of three floors—one occupied as the cook-house and provision store; the second divided into two cabins, one for the engineer and the other for the foreman; and the third provided with three rows or tiers of beds, capable of accommodating about thirty men. Below these three floors was a temporary floor, at the height of twenty-five feet above the rock, used for preparing mortar, and for the smith’s workshop. The beacon was connected with the lighthouse by a bridge of timber.
The apartment which Mr. Stevenson himself occupied he has described in characteristic language.
It measured, he says, not more than four feet three inches in breadth on the floor; and though, from the oblique direction of the beams of the building, it widened towards the top, yet it did not admit of the full extension of his arms when he stood on the floor; while its length was little more than sufficient for suspending a cot-bed during the night. This was tied up to the roof during the day, leaving free room for the admission of occasional visitants. His folding-table was attached with hinges immediately under the small window of the apartment, and his boots, barometer, thermometer, portmanteau, and two or three camp-stools, formed the bulk of his movables. His diet being plain, the paraphernalia of the table were proportionately simple; though everything had the appearance of comfort, and even of neatness, the walls being covered with green cloth, formed into panels with red tape, and his bed festooned with curtains of yellow cotton-stuff. If, in speculating upon the abstract wants of man in such a seclusion, one were reduced to a single book, the Sacred Volume, whether considered for the striking diversity of its story, the morality of its doctrines, or the important truths of its gospel, would have proved by far the greatest treasure.
In the early part of July, a visit was paid to the works by Mrs. Dickson, the only daughter and surviving relative of Smeaton, the great engineer. She was conveyed to the rock on board the Smeaton tender, which had been so named by Stevenson from a sense of the deep obligation he owed to the labours and abilities of his predecessor. It is unnecessary to say that she was exceedingly gratified by her visit.