had already been drawn up by Mr.
Stevenson, which plan, Captain Brown thinks would require fifteen
years for its execution, and cost one hundred and fifty thousand
pounds. Captain Brown undertook to erect one of bronze ninety feet
high for fifteen thousand pounds, and to complete it in four months.
This plan, from whatever cause, was not entertained, and with the
exception of a small lighthouse erected on the Gravesend pier,
metallic lighthouses excited no attention until the year 1840, when
application was made to Mr. Alexander Gordon, the eminent engineer, by
the commissioners appointed by the House of Assembly, in the island of
Jamaica, to light a dangerous point in that island, called Morant
Point, for the erection of a suitable lighthouse at the smallest
possible cost. On this occasion Mr. Gordon proposed the erection of a
cast-iron structure, resembling in outline that of the Celtic towers
of Ireland. His plans and estimates having been accepted, they were
executed with remarkable celerity; and from an account furnished by
Mr. A. R. Renton, (the manager of the factory at which the work for
the lighthouse was done,) we derive most of the following particulars.

The advantage which iron, when not in contact with sea-water,
possesses over stone or other materials, is that upon a given base a
much larger internal capacity for dwellings and stories can be
obtained, with equal stability. With this material plates can be cast
in large surfaces, and with but few joints. A system of bonding the
plates may also be adopted, which will ensure the perfect combination
of every part, so as to form an entire mass, and thus the best form
for strength and stability can easily be obtained. From the
comparatively small bulk and weight of the component parts of the
structure great facilities are afforded for transporting and erecting
it. Thus, in less than three months from the date of the contract, the
lighthouse about to be described was cast and erected on the
contractor's premises, and it was expected to have the light exhibited
in Jamaica in three months more. The whole expense was said not to
exceed one-third the cost of a similar building in stone.

The structure was to be founded on a coral rock a little above the
level of the sea; the face of the rock is about ten feet below the
surface of the sand, and was to be excavated to receive the base of
the tower, resting on and cased with granite, to prevent the natural
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