it does " flinch" in any respect, the whole chain
is condemned, and returned to the severely-tried
contractor. It would be well for the
public service if all government contracts (so
long as the odious and mischievous system
exists of proposing to men to under-bid each
other, instead of offering a fair sum to the
best man) were tested with the same severity.
A record of all these chain-tests is kept, and
of a most substantial kind; the link in question
being preserved, ticketed and hung up, and a
book kept; so that reference can be made
directly, if any chain, furnished by the Trinity
Buoy Wharf, is reported to have "parted,"
when it ought to have held fast.

Attached to this establishment is a blacksmith's
shop, and a whitesmith's, for the
repair, testing, and so forth, of all iron-work,
and for the manufacture of any small articles
needed for the buoys or the light-boats- the
latter being supplied and fitted out with every
thing necessary at this Wharf. A room is set
apart as a butcher's shop, where the masters
of the light-boats cut up and salt all their
store of meat; and by the side of it is
another small room, which contains the pump-works
of an Artesian well, of two hundred and
forty-five feet in depth, where all the supply
of fresh water for their tanks is obtained.

Let us proceed to look at the general store-rooms
for supplying the light-houses, light-boats,
and beacons along the coast- not
forgetting any little additional matter that
may add to the comfort and safety of the
buoys.

We pass through store-rooms- clean, as
only naval officers seem to know how to
keep a place clean (for certainly the sight of a
morsel of rag, a fallen button, or a pin, would
"stand out" as an effect upon the surface);
and in side offices and closets we discover
shelves full of lamp-glasses of different sizes;
cupboards full of reflectors; drawers full of
lamp-wicks, like rolls of linen; shelves crowded
with bright copper oil-measures; nooks and
corners filled with bales of lamp-leathers,
cloths, and whitening, and soap, and other
cleaning and polishing materials; while overhead
are hanging groves of mops, hand-brushes,
and brooms. All this light-house chandlery
on the left side: on the right are stowed, like
a dead wall rising up to the ceiling, a battery
of black round-headed oil-cans, each fixed
firmly in a circular black basket, so as to be
protected from injury when carried up cliffs,
or sent up by the side of rocks or light-house
stone-work from boats below, or other rough-
and-ready-work, on emergencies.

We pass on to the oil-store. This is a
great square room, paved with large slabs of
slate, so clean and clear from the slightest
crumb to catch the eye, that the entire surface
looks like one enormous slate. On the right-hand
side is ranged a compact set of oil-tanks
and cisterns, all painted in Venetian
red, and fixed close against the wall. At
the opposite end stands a row of smaller
tanks, containing olive oil, for engines, also
painted red. Each has a large brass tap,
with a copper mouth-piece hung beneath it,
to catch any dripping, together with a copper
trough on the floor below, to prevent waste
or untidiness. Copper oil-measures of all
sizes are ranged on shelves. These tanks and
cisterns contain the enormous quantity of one
hundred and thirteen tons of oil. All the
light-houses, light-boats, and beacons on the
coast are supplied from this source.

Passing out through other store-rooms, the
floors of which are half-covered with small
kegs of whitelead for painting purposes, and
with ranges of small red windlasses, or cranes,
for heaving up lanterns to the mast-heads of
light-boats, we arrive at the chain-cable tiers
of the buoys, all ranged according to their
several sizes and lengths, and all painted
black, and shining in their dark massive
repose. A little railway, or tram-road, is
constructed from the level of the store-rooms,
which runs straight down to the end
of the wharf, so that trucks laden and empty
can go and return from the stores to the
boats, without delay or effort, and a cargo of
all sorts of things is thus "trundled out" in
a surprisingly short space of time. Certainly
no practical operations, requiring strength,
precision, and celerity, are carried out with
such undeviating accuracy, as when they are
under the direction of an active and intelligent
naval officer of experience.

A light-ship (we call them all light-boats)
is a creature of peculiar construction; all its
fittings-up are peculiar; its crew is peculiar,
and all their duties are peculiar. Imagine
a three-masted vessel of the size of a small
steam-boat, but with bulwarks of great
strength, and, in short, presenting all the
features of strength and compactness, and
the whole frame-work painted a dull Venetian
red. All its fittings-up and apparatus on
deck are painted red also. Every piece of
machinery that is on deck is either painted
red, or protected by a red water-proof canvas
cover. There is a lantern for each mast-head,
but not visible during the day. Each one is
lowered and sleeps in a locker, or case, at the
foot of the mast- or rather, where the mast
joins the deck. The lantern is a circular
frame-work of metal, with glass windows ail
round, and varying from three to four feet in
diameter. They are hoisted up to their
position at the mast-head every night, by
means of a small crane, called from its shape
an A crane. Some of these lights in the
light-ships are revolving, for which there is a
clock-work apparatus on the deck, with a communication
up the sides of the mast. During
the day-time, a signal to vessels is given by
means of a top-mast, on the summit of which
is placed a large globe made of wooden hoops,
and having somewhat the appearance of a
globular bird-cage. To get this up to such
a position, as no shrouds run so high, and the
globe could only be fixed there by a manual