Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-08-18

II The SOUTH SHORE aug II, 1901.
From Nantasket Beach to Cohasset is short
and pleasant drive. The shore, which skirts the
road for the whole distance, presents the same
rugged aspect that have before described, and
the sterile soil inland incapable of prOduc.
ing anything save few stunted red cedars and
whortleberres. Here and there, however, in
some quiet nook among the rocks, there are spots
of moderate fertility, and these are always occu-
pied by class of amphibious bipeds, who can
plough the sea and the land with equal facility,
and who know how to draw subsistence from
the ocean, when dry Summer shriyels the corn,
and makes the potatoes " few in hill"
Arrived at Cohasset, which is really pleas
ant, thriving looking town. the first object of in
terest is the new lighthouse, which is being
structed here by the government, for the &" Minot
Rocks, dangerous ledge directly off the coast,
and in the very track of all the vessels bound Ell
Their to or from Boston. The terrible storm
which destroyed the old lighthouse, few years
since, is undoubtedly fresh in the minds of our
readers, but, to the jewellers upon this coast, the
memory of that fearful tempest, with its terrible
results, in the destruction of property and the
loss of lives, is freighted with thoughts of OPP
pressive sadness. The mighty waves that tore up
the granite foundations, and twisted the massive
iron columns of the lighthouse, that by its
friendly glare across the pillows of the bay,
ed the home returning mariner of his danger,
scattered far and wide the members of many
happy New England home, and filled the whole
communities with mourning, for husbands, faith
ers, brothers, and sons, who should never more,
in this life, exchange the familiar greetings of
love and friendship with the hearts that were dear
to them, and to promote whose welfare they had
"gone down to the sea in ships, to do business
upon the mighty waters"
The government, with commendable lberality,
has made an appropriation for this light house,
commensurate with the Importance of the inter-
ests it is designed to promote, and, when finish
ed, it will undoubtedly be the most substantial
and the most costly structure of its size in the
whole world. The appropriation, thus far, be-
lieve, amounts to 100000. The ediice is to be
of cornice form, about sixty feet in diameter at
the base, and high that the surges Of the heav-
lest storms cannot break it. 1t is to be built
of Quincy granite, hammered, and perfectly SOL
id, except well-hole in the centre, of about two
feet in diameter, which may be used for the stor.
age of oil and provisions, for the lighthouse
keeper, who never be absent from his post of
duty and of danger. Each course of stones, as is
usual in all stone edifces, " breaks joints " with
the courses above and below it, but in addition to
this, every separate stone of each course is dove
tailed into every other stone that adjoins it, and
every stone is bolted by massive copper bolts into
the stones above and below it. the whole form
ing fabric apparently as firm and immovable as
if it was hewn from the solid rock. 1t does not
seem as if anything short of an earthquake could
ever shake it from its foundations, and it will
probably stan through all the changes of time,
through all the collisions Of the elements for
thousands and thousands of years, as stand the
pyramids of Egypt, an enduring monument of
the genius and skill of Yankee mechanics, and
of the fostering care of the government Of the
United States, of the interests of commerce and
the lives of its citizens.
But, l must close here. and leave for another
letter some items of interest that were intended
for this, as the mail closes at once I'D.