hat the Bell Rock rises only a few feet out of
the sea at low tide. The foundation of the tower, sunk into the solid
rock, was just three feet three inches above low water of the lowest
spring-tides, so that the lighthouse may be said with propriety to be
founded beneath the waves.

One great point that had to be determined at the commencement of the
operations was the best method of landing the stones of the building,
this being a delicate and difficult process, in consequence of the
weight of the stones and their brittle nature, especially in those parts
which were worked to a delicate edge or formed into angular points. As
the loss of a single stone, too, would stop the progress of the work
until another should be prepared at the workyard in Arbroath and sent
off to the rock, it may easily be imagined that this matter of the
landing was of the utmost importance, and that much consultation was
held in regard to it.

It would seem that engineers, as well as doctors, are apt to differ.
Some suggested that each particular stone should be floated to the rock,
with a cork buoy attached to it; while others proposed an air-tank,
instead of the cork buoy. Others, again, proposed to sail over the rock
at high water in a flat-bottomed vessel, and drop the stones one after
another when over the spot they were intended to occupy. A few, still
more eccentric and daring in their views, suggested that a huge
cofferdam or vessel should be built on shore, and as much of the
lighthouse built in this as would suffice to raise the building above
the level of the highest tides; that then it should be floated off to
its station on the rock, which should be previously prepared for its
reception; that the cofferdam should be scuttled, and the ponderous mass
of masonry, weighing perhaps 1000 tons, allowed to sink at once into its
place!

All these plans, however, were rejected by Mr Stevenson, who resolved
to carry the stones to the rock in boats constructed for the purpose.
These were named praam boats. The stones were therefore cut in
conformity with exactly measured moulds in the workyard at Arbroath, and
conveyed thence in the sloops already mentioned to the rock, where the
vessels were anchored at a distance sufficient to enable them to clear
it in case of drifting. The cargoes were then unloaded at the moorings,
and laid on the decks of the praam boats, which conveyed them to the
rock, where they were laid on small trucks, run