The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-02 00:00:00

~~cf=

IRELAND;

DUBLIN, M
HARVEST PROSPECTS.
The result of an annual autumnal tour through
the north-western counties is thus stated by Mr.
John Lamb, the Quaker correspondent of the
Belfast Whig:—
" There is no doubt that our country is rapidly im•
proving. The people are better clad and better fed. Th•
country is ranch better cultivated than it was a dozen
years ago. The gaols are nearly empty, and the poorhouses
not half filled ; some of the masters complain that they
cannot muster as much :healthy labour as will cultivate
the gardens and grounds roun.t the workhouses. The
towns are better paved, swept, arid lighted, and many
an old, unsightly thatched house has been pulled down
to make room for a respectable slated one ; yet there is
abundance of room for furtber improvement in all therm
respects. Few towns in Ireland have improved so much
in appearance during the last ten years as Sligo. The
morning I started was the first time this season I ob-
served any serious decided symptoms of the potato
disease ; and every day ince the leaves and stalkky seem
to get worse. The disease is quite universal over the
wliele of my route; some fields are much worse than
others. As yet there does not appear to be any great
injury done to the tubers, except ,topping further
growth, which is a very serious loss, as the late kinds aro
not near maturity. The oat crop is likely to be ♦ery
much better than iss.t year, and many farmers expect it
will be equal to, and some say better than that of 1854,
which was the best oat crop remembered in Ireland for
20 years. My own impression is teat generally it will
not be quite equal to that of 1854. Some odd fields are
thin and short, particularly on the dry hills in the mid-
land counties. About Sligo and Ballysbannon the
crop seemed to be extremely heavy. The wheat crop
is also likely to be a very good one ; it is thicker
on the ground tban la-t year, but some farmers tell
me it is not as well headed. Several persons who
were reaping have told me that they do not observe

much, iranY, rest or mildew on their crop, so far.
The late rains_ hale greatly improved all kinds of
green crops. The barley is generally thick on the
ground, but the straw is short, and it struck me to be
mostly small in the head. The hue and cry raised
against weeds by the roadside is beginniag-ta-take effect
already. I have observed the roadmen at work in seve-
ral counties. I hope it may ex'end to the gentlemen
farmers, and from them to the small farmers in all parts
of Ireland. It farming societies would give premiums
for the farms that Lad least weeds, it would be of great
advantage,"
ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION WITH AMERI@A.
The following interesting statement is extracted
from the Cork Constitution of Saturday :
"Lying at anchor off Queenstown for the last few
days may have been observed a small, unsightly, ill-
painted, rusty bottomed screw steamer, without one
point of attraction about her, except the stars and stripes
fluttering in the breeze. Yet that boat and some o f
the officers she contains have been the world's wonder
for a season, and have just now concluded a task which,
is the forerunner of an event more dreadful still. The
Arctic was the vessel that was sent to rescue Dr. Kane,
who bad previously been sent to rescue Franklin. She
was successful, and brought home Dr. Kane and his
crew, who had been obliged to abandon his ship and
search. Sho was then a light ship on the American
coast. She is now the bearer of Lieutenant Strain, of
Darien notoriety, and Captain Berriman, who has before,
and now again, crossed from Newfoundland to take sound-
ings of the wholeAtlanticfrom St. John's to Valencia, with
the view to ascertain the probable success with which a
telegraphic cable may he laid between these points. The
result is satisfactory. For some 50 or 60 miles from St.
John's, and again on this side, isa bank varying train 25 to
20 fathoms. Between these thera is a plateau nearly
level, the bottom soft, composed of shells so fine that
only the microscope can discover them, each shell per-
fect in its minute beauty, proving the absence of currents
at the bottom, and, with due deference to Stephenson
and others, the want of that vast pressure, which was
to be so dreaded, and exhibiting at every point not only
a capacity, but the mast perfect capacity, for the very
use f which it is required. T.e whole apparatus for
arriving at these facts is most perfect. Steam-power,
separate from that, of the ship, works the axle from
which the sounding line is ' paid out.' Soundings have
been taken to Vie depth of 27,000 fathoms. By a neat
contrivance each sounding knows Lot only the depth, ,
but the nature of the bottom, which is brought up in
five quills, and the temperature of the water, the latter
being given by th, expansion or contraction of metallic

spiral Tiband; placed 'round a centre pin, booked at
top, and attached at bottom to a needle and indicator,
the latter remaining fixed after the first has ceased to
act, showing the exact variation between the surface
and the bottom. Most careful drawings have been
made by Mr. Van Den Berg (to whom has been assigned
the special post of draughtsman) of the soundings, show-
ing a profile of the bottom of the sea with the great.
est accuracy. There can be no doubt that tele-
graphic communications between Irehind and St.
John's, a distance of 1,640 geographical miles, may
be regarded as a certainty. It is in the hands of a
small American company, but, though small, if its mem-
bers possess but a tithe of -the energy of their repre-
senta ive, Mr. Cyrus W. Field, who is also here making
every inquiry, it will be enough to overcome every diffi-
culty. Captain B.3rriman laughs at laying the cable.
He asks but a ship large enough, and he will undertake
to do it at 10 wiles an hour right across. The company'
have already obtained the sole grant for erecting tele-
graphs through the whole of Newfoundland, and have
already some 1,700 miles at work, or will have in a few
days, which is in connection with the American lines.
Toe difficulties and trials of temper in taking these
soundings have been tremendous. Repeatedly after
g out' tens of thouqtrris of fathoms of line, and
gettin all up within some 60 or 80, it was snapped, and
al! had to be dove again. S x and eight hours have been
occupied in getting one, rounding only, and these have
been made nearly every half degree the whole way
across. From the captan to the cabin boy, each has
given his willing aid. No trouble was thought too
much—no time too long ; each appeared to feel the
honot.r of his nation at stake, and proud in every way
to advance the object in view. They have done their
work well. Nature has granted all we could ask ; art
will soon do its part, while nature, science and art,
worked out by man's hand, will produce one great
whole to benefit mankind."
THE LATE RAILWAY FORGERIES.
Sir Edward Ml:Millen, as chairman of the Great
Southern and Western Railway, at the meeting
held on Saturday, alluded to the forgeries of
Knighting, the late confidential clerk of the com-
pany and now undergoing the penalty of his
rogueries. Of the actual extent of his frauds no

clear estimate has yet been made, but Sir Edward
thinks that the sum of 25,0001. will fully cover all
deficiencies.

HEW LIGHTHOUSE FOR TUE

B 1114,11A5.

An engineerkg work of considerable magnitude and
some novelty in its mode of construction has lately been
completed, under a contract with the Admiralty, by
Messrs. Grissell, at their ironworks on the Regent's
Canal, H.,xton, in the shape of a lighthe use, built wholly
of cast iron, and intended to be erected on a dangerous
rock situated near one ef the Bahama group of islands
in the West Indies. The height of the tower, exclusive
of a lage revolving lantern, 15 feethigle which surmounts
it, is 124 lent ; its diameter is 25 feet at the base and 14
feet at the top ; the total weight of metal used in its
con.truction is about 300 tons, and the cost of the whole
work is estimated at from 7,0001. to 8,0001. This is ex-
clusive of the expense of conveying it to its destination
and of its erection there. It was begun in June, 1855,
and finished towards the end of January last, with the
exception of the interior fittings, which have since been
completed. It has been erected with the same care and
solidity on a spot on the wharf of the contractors as if
that were its ultimate destination, and it were intended
to last for ages, and it now towers up for a time among
the adjacent church spires, an additional metropolitan
landmark. The whole buflding is divided into seven
floors or compartments, eace 16 feet in height. The first,
which is about 24 feet from the basement, ard reached
by an exterior iron stair of the same height from the
ground, is fitted up as a kitchen ; the seoond, including
also a Belies of commodious fixtures, will be used as a
sitting room ; the third as a bedroom, and the remaining
storeys upwards are to be devoted to purposes connected
with the main object of the structure—as a beacon to
mariners navigating a perilous gulf in the Atlantic. A.
huge metal shaft, two feet in diameter, tuns up the cen-
tre of the building, from its foundation to its summit,
and from this, at intervals of 16 feet, strong iron girders
radiate to the circumference, and, resting on the frame-
work there equally ponderous and durable, serve to sup-
port the floors of each of the different chambere, and to
knit together the exterior portions of the edifice with its
centre throughout its whole height. The interior of
most of the apartments is lined with corrugated iron to
diminish the heat of a tropical climate, and 'the whole
building is pierced all round at short intervals with
small elazel loopholes, for the purposes of light and yen.
t lotion. The lantern at the top encinees an immense
revolving light, 15 feet in height, containing 21. beudrnaernsa
all showing white lights, except ono,
each of them strongly intensified by which is
lost' brilliantr
tahis?sekciyoncsotratutewditohf
inehththink.
concave reflectors, made of copper, thickly
The framework of the lantern .
durability,
gunand glazed with
the principle
n 1) byilTacoinulsrYoornl6 hours at a
wwiithh aplvaiteewatloastshefigver*sttehpsoossf
ab
no
The revolver is wound
of an ordinary clock, and well
of Long•scre, who has had great
stretch. The whole of the lighting apparatus has been
ibikraiiii:c'h of machinery, and the rest of
ecxopnsetrritunceteediit:yolils'
the work at Messrs. Grissell's has been exec'lted under
the immediate superintendence of Mr. Sheaves, the
foreman of engineers there. The exterior of the tower
consists of 155 cast iron plates, each weighing from two
tons to 15 cwt., and made to fit each other with the
greatest nicety. The lighthouse will eventually be fixed
on the Great Isaac's Rock, on ti:e Bahama Bank,—a
,iangerous shoal, situated in the Straits of Florida, be-
tween the Island of Bermuda and the Ha vannah .It is
described as a desolate epos, wholly uninhabited, about
two wiles long and half a mile in breatith, with scarcely
Any vegetation, destitute of fresh water, at certain sea'
..ons wholly covered by the sea, and for about three
months of the year altogether uospproachable by ships,
by which means alone provisions can be conveyed to the
seven or eight. men who will be employed to keep the
light burning in this lonely tower.

The letters from Hamburg describe an increased
'scarcity of money, the rate of discount having advanced
to 1 per cent. -

/
/ .t
e ,