every single pile is about seventy pounds; and
not less than twelve or thirteen hundred constitute
the staging as it now exists. The general
width of the breakwater staging where five
roadways run is one hundred and fifty feet;
and the length of the piles at the outer end
ninety feet, exclusive of shoe and screw, thus
allowing, in ten fathom water, thirty feet clear
above the level of low water of ordinary,
spring tides. We have seen that the staging
between the two heads,where three roads only
run, is steadier and less yielding to the
weight of the wagons than that on either side
of it, but especially near the shore. This
arises from the outside pile only being
trussed and stayed in the bay or row of five
piles, whereas in the rows of three all the
piles are supported thus; each pile is further
strengthened by screw moorings, that is, by
long rods of iron reaching from the head of
the timbers, and screwed into the ground at
a considerable angle.

There is no room here for saying anything
about the workshops, one great feature of
which is the circular saw that will cut through
a forty feet plank in six minutes, and we must
only hint at the screw-breaks at the drumheads,
by which the downward speed of
loaded wagons is completely governed. We
give one good word to the beautiful weighing
machine at the head of the inclines, and the
coaling-jetty at their foot, the granite courses
for which are being now laid; and end the discourse
with some authentic details as to the
state and extent of the work in general.
The act for the construction of this breakwater
was passed in eighteen hundred and
forty-seven, and the first stone was deposited
in the summer of eighteen hundred and forty-nine.
Since that period three millions of
tons of stone have been deposited; they can
now tip nearly half a million per annum.
To quarry this rubble stone there are nine
hundred and twenty-three, out of the fifteen
hundred convicts constantly at work. The
convicts never leave the summit of the hill.
The total number of men employed is three
hundred and ninety-six; there are also thirty
or forty horses used about the works.

The description of work undertaken is,
according to the act of parliament this;
the formation of an inner and outer breakwater,
together two thousand five hundred
yards, (one mile seven hundred and
forty yards,) in length, which will completely
shelter two thousand one hundred and seven
acres of Portland Bay; the depth over the
anchorage varying from two to ten fathoms.
The Admiralty decided that the entrance
should be made available for men-of-war, and
the largest steamers, and the heads are
therefore founded at a clear depth of twenty-four
feet at least, below low water of spring-tides,
with the rubble slope down to the
ground-surface beginning at that depth, so
as to avoid the possibility of large vessels
striking in a heavy sea. Of this it is evident
there can be no risk whatever, since the lowest
depth of water is about forty-five feet at the
lowest tides. The total estimate of cost is
below a million; Plymouth breakwater, the
length of which is between five hundred and
six hundred yards less than that of Portland,
cost three-quarters of a million beyond the
Portland estimate. The difference is due, of
course mainly, to the astonishing advantages
of Portland over almost every other site, but
partly also to the advance of practical science
since eighteen hundred and twelve. The
date of the completion of this great national
undertaking must manifestly depend, and is
reported quarterly to the House of Commons
as depending, on the degree to which use is
made of convict labour in procuring stone.

MINE OYSTER.

MR. DILLMAN DULL,—Sir, we are instructed by
Messrs. Rapson, Tapson, and Crash, of Vinegar Yard,
tobacconists, to apply to you for the immediate payment
of their account, nine hundred and seventy-three
pounds, five shillings, and tenpence. A remittance
before Monday next is requisite to stay legal proceedings.

We are, Sir, your Obedient Servants,

TOOTH, NAIL, HAMMER, AND Co.

What am I to do? I am a poor mortal
who has ruined himself by marriage on eight
hundred a year. Only yesterday I sent my
housekeeping accounts to The Times, and
proved that backed by an income not above
three thousand, any decent person ought not
to lump himself with a wife and probabilities.
I will not repeat my accounts here, we don't
keep any household books, but my wife is,—
and upon eight hundred a year, is obliged to
be,—a good cook. It is she who, as M. A. D.
has sent a balance sheet of our expenses to
The Times. Her accounts do not include
field expenses. I lost seven hundred on last
year's transactions as my betting book will
prove. As for the cigars for self and friends
—may I never want a friend or a cigar to
give him—not having paid for them for the
last five years, I had forgotten that they had a
price, until that villainous letter from my
obedient servants, reminded me this morning
how those rascals of tobacconists can charge.

My income is unfortunately an annuity
chargeable upon an estate during my life.
I have nothing to mortgage; I have no
expectancies to sell. But I want money. When
I say that to my wife,—make it then, says
she. I will, and I know how to do it. The
world's mine oyster and the Supplement to
The Times will tell me of a hundred places
wherein I may thrust my knife. Fortune
goes begging for suitors daily, doing penance
for her misdeeds, jade as she has been, in that
sheet. Now let me front her. Births, yes;
Born Dillman Dull, Esq., into the republic of
workers. Marriages, yes; I don't flinch now
at the thought of Mary Adelaide's expenses.
Death, no; I never will say die. I won't say