the year 672 of the Christian era, the brass of which
it was composed was sold by the Saracens to a Jewish merchant of
Edessa, for a sum, it is said, equal to thirty-six thousand pounds.

But the most celebrated lighthouse of antiquity was that erected about
the year 283 B. C. by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, on the island of
Pharos, opposite to Alexandria. It is from the name of this island
that lighthouses have received their generic name of Pharos. Strabo
records, that the architect Sostratus, having first secretly carved
his own name on the solid walls of the building, covered the words
with plaster, and in obedience to Ptolemy's command inscribed thereon,
'King Ptolemy to the gods the preservers, for the benefit of sailors.'
The height of this building is stated at four hundred feet; but this,
as well as many other accounts relating to it, must be an
exaggeration. A more modest account, given by the historian Josephus,
is likely to be accurate; but even he states that the fire which was
kept constantly burning at the top was visible by seamen at a distance
equal to about forty miles.

The most remarkable lighthouses of ancient times were situated in and
about the Mediterranean sea; they were generally placed upon
extensive moles, or near the entrance of harbours: some of them still
remain. The Pharos of Alexandria, and that of Messina, still display
their fires, but it is stated that they have shared in none of the
improvements of modern science; that even in Spain and Portugal the
lighthouse of Corunna, or famous tower of Hercules, exhibits merely a
coal-fire with so faint a light that ships can scarcely perceive it
until they are in danger of striking against the shores. Of these
ancient lights there yet remain those on either side of the
Dardanelles; one in the archipelago on the island of Milo, two in the
gulf of Salonica, and one near Lagos in Romania; Malta, Leghorn,
Civita Vecchia, Genoa, Malaga, Cape Tarifa, and other places, still
preserve the fires which guided the prow and the galley of the masters
of the old world.

The sum of our knowledge of the ancient history of lighthouses is
neither accurate nor extensive: we proceed, therefore, to notice those
of modern times. Passing by the many rude contrivances for lighting up
a coast, consisting as they did chiefly of pots of fire mounted on
poles or rocks, the first lighthouse which merits attention is the
Tour de Corduan, which, on account of its archi