( 87 )

be stretched across as soon as the vessels shouldbe moored. The floor was supported by fivecables, lashed in the notches of a sleeper placedfore and aft, on the deck of each vessel. Fivecables, thirteen inches in circumference each,and one hundred and twenty fathoms long, wereput on board the chasse-mart'-es destined for thecentre of the bridge, and so coiled that theycould be handed up the hatchways, right andleft, at the same time.

The river was bounded on both sides by per-pendicular stone walls fourteen feet high, andthe same thickness. That on the left bank wasbacked behind by sand, level to its surface;while the ground behind the wall on the rightbank was twelve feet lower than the top of themasonry, and covered at high tide by seven feetwater. The rise of the tide, at springs, wasfourteen feet.

On the right bank, the end of each cable wasfastened to an iron eighteen pounder (A, fig. 8,plate 3), which was thrown over the wall.Those parts of the cables which rested on themasonry were served with green bullock hides,to prevent rubbing. On the left bank theywere stretched by capstans and gin tackles,fixed to a frame of timber laid on the sand be-hind the wall, three feet lower than the top of