A TTSIT 70O 71 EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.
course, be attended to, and cvery Saturday nmight the c%ef appointed for the week con- cocts a plan but wholesome plum-pudding, which has Decome a regular institution. Light-keepers, nowadavs, are not reduced to the necessity of cating the candles, as they occasionally were in Smeaton’s time, for o large supply of tinned meats and biscuis, provided by the Trinity House, is always kept ready for emergencies.
At the hour of dusk the Tamp is lichted,
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column, running centrally through the whole length of the lighthouse, was constructed to hold both weight and chain for working the machinery which rotates the drums. Now, as the beams of light flash out scaward, I Teave our fricnd to his solitary task for a chat with his mates in the snug kitchen below.
I fmd the ight-keepers quict and intellizent, having a full sense of their responsibility, although they do not take kindly to their oscupatron,
LIGIHTTING Ulb,
so [ accompany the keeper (who now begins his watch) into the interior of the class drum, and obscrve how, with a spring grip, he raises the lamp-chimney and ignites the wicks: but, bemg stull daylight, the illumination is not Lrilhant, although it increases in hrightness as night comes on. "T'he next procecding is to wind up the gear which rotates the drums. and as the weight to be lifted is cqual to a ton, and the operation lasts about an hour. it 15 somewhat fatiguing. The weight is con- tained in that portion of the column situated m the two lower rooms, which hollow iron
Fven hered however, they are able o Cnjoy @ modicum of pleasure, for fishing is prac- ticable all the year round - in summer from the set-off,” with rod and line, in winter lrom the lantern gallery, because then the fish, Being shy, keep away from the rocks and can only be caught by means of g long Tine with a bladder attached, which s blown by the wind in the dircetion required, the fish thus captured including bass. pollock, bream, horse mackerel, and congers. ‘The bladder-line 15 also used for transferring Ietters to pilot-boats, when they