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1839.] THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT’S JOURNAL. The port of Belfast is distant from Ballymena about 24 miles, and Glenarm is only 12 miles ; and independent of the saving of land- carriage, it offers a greater facility to direct intercourse with Scotland, being nearer, and in a more direct line ; besides, the depth of water within the proposed pier at Glenarm would enable vessels drawing even more than 20 feet of water to enter and depart at all times of tide. With these eminent and peculiar advantages, which no artifi cial harbour in Ireland possesses except two, there can be no doubt but a very considerable trade would arise, fully sufficient to repay any moderate expenditure which might be made in erecting a pier at Glenarm Bay. Design for a Harbour at Glenarm on the Coast of the County of Antrim, Ireland. Drawn to a scale of 800 feet to U inch. By William Bald, F.R.S.E., M.R.I.A., and Civil Engit eer. Fig. I. Plan of Harbour. (The dotted line D)—N. by E I to the Mull of Cantire—(the other dotted line)—NE by E 4 E, to Craig of Ailsi—AAA, Low-water—BB, High- water—CCC, Proposed Pier or Breakwater—DD, Glenarm Bay—EE, Road way—FF, Harbour—GG, Line of Transverse Section —H, Town of Glenarm. Fig. 2. Transverse Section at GG, 190 feet broad at base; drawn to a scale of 55 feet to the inch. AA, High-water—BB, Low-water—C, Top of Quay, 18 feet wide—D, Pa rapet at top, or Storm Pavement—EE, Breakwater Glacis, or Storm Pavement. The Construction.—It is proposed to run out a rough pier, or breakwater, from Paixe’s Point to a distance of 825 feet, then with a cant of 380 feet in length, as laid down, drawn and described in the chart containing the proposed design and sections of the breakwater, deposited with the clerk of the peace. This work would effectually protect and cover about 20 acres of the Bay of Glenarm, and give security and shelter to trading ships of all kinds. The depth of water within the mole would be from 22 to 30 feet at high water ordinary spring tides. There is an abundance of limestone, in extremely thick beds, lying close to the proposed site of the breakwater, easily wrought, and which will afford an abundance of very heavy and large material, at a remarkably cheap rate, to construct the breakwater with. It is proposed, simply to lay down an abundance of stone blocks, and then to permit the ocean, for some time during storms, to shape down the slopes of the sea-side of the mole to the angles of inclination which the momentum of that element would assign to such materials. And for the purposes of landing and shipping of oods, it is intended to construct a timber wharf within the pier or reakwater, leaving to some future period, when the trade would afford the means, the facing up of the inside of the pier with squared masonry. Even the construction of only 300 or 400 feet in length of the breakwater, would enable vessels to discharge and take in car goes, so that an immediate traffic would be the result of even a very small portion of this work being done. I have drawn out two estimates: one for an extension of 1,205 feet in length—amount, £17,312 16s. Sd.; the second estimate is for an extension of, in length, 825 feet—amount, £11,217 2s. 5d. William Bald, Civil Engineer. RALPH REDIVIVUS.—No. XIV. l’HE LOWTHER ARCADE. What advantages its more successful rival may possess in regard to its shops, I am not prepared to say, neither is it a question of any im portance to my present purpose, but I may assert, almost without fear of contradiction from any one, that the Lowther as far surpasses the Burlington Arcade in its architectural appearance, as it falls short of it in the degree of favour and patronage it receives from the public. In itself this is but very indifferent praise, since it might be greatly superior to the other, and yet scarcely worthy of notice for any archi tectural merit. In fact, as a design, this piece of architecture displays both originality and taste, greatly more so than many things which it is the fashion to talk of, merely', it would seem, because tliey happen to have been cried up in books, and their praises have been repeated and handed down from one book-maker to another, without further examination or inquiry. Before, however, I touch upon the merits of this arcade, I must be allowed to say something in regard to the class of buildings so deno minated in this country. As far as public convenience is concerned, most assuredly nothing could be devistd more suitable to such a climate as ours—that is, supposing it to deserve one tithe of the ill-natured, splenetic grumbling it provokes,—than a covered street, which bids defiance to the humours of the atmosphere, and where one may lounge and look at the shop-window3, though the rain should come down in torrents, or though an August sun should broil people as they walk along in the open streets. Here there is no disagreeable, perhaps I should say, delightful variety of mud, ankle-deep at one time, and hovering, but, alas ! not golden, clouds of dust at another. On the contrary, there is a monotonous constancy of uniform, dry, and level pavement, where a lady might walk without soiling a white satin slipper. It is this monotony, I presume, that prejudices the public against such galleries, as they may very fairly be styled, more especially the one here under notice. I say, “ prejudices the public against them,” because there is some reason to presume they have no attraction, or else by this time we should have many more erections of the same kind, if no where else, in those places at least that seem expressly intended for them, a nd unfit for anything el-e ; for instance, the two squeezed-up alleys called the “ Turnstiles,” leading into Lincoln’s-Inn fields ; Middle-row, Holborn; Cranbourne-allev, and several others of the same description in Corn- hill and its neighbourhood, all of them very greatly frequented thoroughfares, and more particularly disagreeable to pass through in wet weather. Were these widened, and covered in, and converted into galleries lined with the shops, they would, I think, be so many improvements; spots which one would be more inclined to visit than to avoid. It will, perhaps, be said that merely widening them would in many cases not be sufficient, some of these alleys being, if not abso lutely crooked, full of windings and turnings. To which it may be replied, tani mieux, since, so far from presenting any obstacle, such deviations from an uninterrupted straight line would suggest many