n was kept
up with such diligence that by the end of the following March, the top
of the pile peeped above the water at low tide--forty-three thousand
seven hundred and eighty-nine tons had been dropped! Bit by bit this
point of new land grew longer and longer, until it became possible for
workmen to disembark upon it, and when a storm broke in March, 1814, a
number of ships were glad to seek its shelter, among them being the
famous warship, _Queen Charlotte_. So satisfactory was the protection it
even then afforded, that the engineers decided to raise it higher than
was originally intended, not stopping until two feet above high water
was reached; thus rendering the water between it and Plymouth calm
enough for small vessels.

[Illustration: Plymouth Breakwater.]

When making his survey, Rennie had come to the conclusion that the slope
of his great bank of stones, where it faced the open sea, should be at
an angle of five feet to one. That is, in climbing from the bed of the
sea, it should rise one foot in every length of five. But others did not
agree with him, and the slope was made three feet to one, until the
waves themselves took up the argument, and proved that John Rennie was
right. In 1817, they broke over the bank in such a storm that large
quantities of stone on the seaward side were swept over the top, and
littered down the opposite side. When the gale was over, examination
proved that the sea-slope was five to one. Yet for seven years more this
curious dispute was kept up, and not until 1824, when Rennie had been
dead for three years, did the sea at last have its way, and convince
those in authority that it (and Rennie) knew what the proper slope
should be. On November 23rd, 1824, so fierce was the storm that it
hurled several thousands of tons of ponderous stones from one side of
the Breakwater to the other. That was the final word, and the Breakwater
stands to-day as the sea ordered it.

[Illustration: "The weight of the two birds had the desired effect."]

When this huge pile of loose stones and rubble more than a mile long,
rising from a broad base at the bottom of the sea, had been formed into
a close mass by the action of the waves, a coating of masonry was laid
over them. At either end, east and west, the great wall bends slightly
for a short distance northward, and is finished in a circular platform
of solid masonry. At the west end stands a handsome lighthouse; at the
east, a beacon, and betwee