quid, with a force of patience never to be
surpassed, and with a stomach certainly beyond
the comprehension of a landsman. It
is the chief joy of his life, and commonly his
only business, to pay back with interest any
amount of " chaff " that may drop on him from
overhead. A small wooden shed at this point
of the works, raised a few feet above the
staging, contains a dioptric lantern: that is, a
lantern furnished with prismatic circles of
glass for about a foot above and below the
light, to catch the rays and force them out
in a direct line seaward, with an intense
glare. When the breakwater is complete,
there will be at the passage, between the
inner and outer limbs on each head, such a
lantern.

As we return along the cage, we stop to
watch " the travellers " at work, where masons
are setting the coping-stones of casing for the
inner breakwater. Two small-wheeled trucks,
perhaps eight feet apart, stand on a line of
rails. On a parallel line, sixty feet distant,
there are two similar trucks. From all four
trucks uprights rise to the height of twelve
or fourteen feet, and across these uprights a
platform is laid. There are four winches,
one outside each upright, by which four men
can move the whole machine up or down the
two widely parted lines of rails which may
have two or even more lines lying between
them. This extensive apparatus is required
for the support of a crane, but not a common
crane. It has a crane that has no great arm
reaching up into the air, but consists of a
series of compact, well-adjusted wheels on a
small stand, which can be run upon rails up
and down the sixty feet of platform. Some
of the travellers are made still more complete
by pivots at the top of each upright, which
allow one end of the platform to be wheeled
a given distance along its own set of rails,
without compelling any movement at the other
end. This is the machine used for setting
the stone of the breakwater casing. The
crane will hold a block of several tons weight
neatly hewn for the cornice which is crowning
the six courses of granite wall below, and
grip it fast while the workmen adjust and
re-adjust, enabled by this means to set with
all the nicety that could be used in the adjustment
of a stone weighing pounds instead
of tons. A spirit-level is invariably used;
and it was also employed five-and-twenty
feet below the surface of the water, by the
diving masons, who, in Deane's diving dress,
adjusted the foundations of the splendidly-built
heads. Some notion may be formed of
the work bestowed upon the heads, by the
fact that, though four hundred feet asunder,
six inches is the utmost difference between
their levels. Three hundred pounds is the
lowest cost of one of the large travellers.

To know what the cage is like, we should
observe the work of pushing out a new bay,
or tier, or row of piles, from the end of the
staging. The piles, which are made in the
yard, are formed of double timbers, the two
beams being securely bolted and tree-nailed
together. The pieces are scarfed: that is,
cut so as to overlap and be joined even or
flush, and the whole pile is in section fourteen
inches by twenty-eight. As soon as it is
made, each pile is thrust into an air-tight
cylinder, and, the air both from the cylinder
and the pores of the wood being extracted by
means of an exhaust-pump, creosote is introduced
instead of air. A considerable pressure
is put on, until the wood has absorbed the
right number of pounds of creosote to the
hundredweight. Trussed booms of at least
sixty feet in length (huge rafters with perpendicular
pieces fixed beneath), are now
rigged out from the present staging, one
boom from the centre of each road, making
five in all. Each boom projects thirty feet
overboard, that being the distance at which
the next bay of piles is to be constructed.
They are kept from swaying out of the proper
direction by long pieces of timber, some six
inches square, fixed to their outer end and to
a point on the present staging.

The booms being thus provided for, the
piles are next towed out, with cast-iron
weights attached to the ends, in addition to
the shoe and the Mitchell's screw, with which
they are to be screwed eight feet into the
ground. The ends, in consequence, sink; and
the heads are hoisted up into the jaw,
or forked opening formed in the outer ends
of the booms. Thus the piles are held in
position over the spot of ground to which
they must be screwed. Capstan heads are
on the heads of the piles, into which capstan
bars are now put, having on the end of each
a small jaw or bird's-mouth, to bite the rope
when inserted. Wheeled-platforms, called
trollies, are then run up to the head of the
staging, and fixed there. Each trolly has a
crab mounted, and firmly bolted upon it;
that is, a set of winding machinery, with a
barrel, and winch, and spur-gear, increasing
the power and communicating motion from
the winch to the barrel. Men are stationed
at the crab, and as soon as they commence
winding, motion is given to the capstan-bars,
and by them to the pile; which is thus firmly
screwed into the ground. Crossheads, of
double timbers like the piles, are now fitted
into their upper ends, which are formed so as
to receive them, and the whole is securely
bolted through. Long cranes of thirty-feet
gauge are used to drop these crossheads into
place. Tie-rods are also put through the
piles just above the level of low water mark,
to give them a greater degree of firmness,
Trussed road-pieces made in the yard can now
be fitted athwart the crossheads, one on
either side of each pile; other timbers, called
transoms and chocks, for securing the roadway
in its true position, are fitted in, and the
narrow plank for the workman's footway is
attached to either side, and supported by
brackets. The cost of making and fitting