destroyed by absorption of moisture
from the air, which moisture expanding in the act of freezing, split
the stones, and rendered them useless. It was therefore determined to
construct the cornice of the building, and the parapet of the
light-room of the Liver Rock, of the Craig-Leith quarry, celebrated
for its durability and beauty, and for its property of not being
liable to be affected by the action of frost. These stones were
prepared at Edinburgh during the winter, and the iron frame-work, and
the several compartments of the light-room got ready.

Having during two seasons landed and built upwards of one thousand
four hundred tons of stone upon the rock, while the work was low down
in the water, and before the beacon was habitable; and finding that it
did not now require more than about seven hundred tons to complete the
masonry, there was every prospect of finishing the lighthouse during
the season. But as the success of the work depended wholly upon the
stability of the beacon, every possible attention was bestowed upon
it, and visits made to the rock during the winter months when the
weather would allow.

On the 10th of May operations for the season were commenced. The
building to the height of fifteen feet above the rock was found to be
thickly covered with fuci: on the east side the growth of sea-weed was
observed to the full height of thirty feet, and even on the top or
upper bed of the last-laid course it had grown so as to render walking
somewhat difficult. The men therefore set to work to scrape off the
sea-weed, in order to apply the moulds of the first course of the
staircase. The engineer had also to fix the position of the
entrance-door, which was regulated chiefly by the appearance of the
growth of the sea-weed on the building, indicating the direction of
the heaviest seas, on the opposite side of which the door was placed.

The artificers now took permanent possession of the beacon, and were
all heartily rejoiced at getting rid of the trouble of boating, and
the sickly motion of the tender. The beacon, which has been so often
named, and which proved a source of so much comfort to the men, and of
benefit and dispatch to the work, stood well during the five years
that its services were required. In its present complete form it
consisted of three floors, one of which was occupied as the cook-house
and provision store; the second, which was much encumbered by the
meeting of the principal beams, formed