The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

Back Forward Menu

three and a half years studying for a science degree.

The summer of 1868 he was sent with an engineering party to Anstruther,
on the coast, where a breakwater was being built. There he had his first
opportunity of seeing some of the practical side of engineering. It was
rough work, but he enjoyed it. Later he spent three weeks on Earraid
Island, off Mull, a place which left a strong impression on his mind and
figured afterward as the spot where David Balfour was shipwrecked.

Among the experiences at that time which pleased him most was a chance
to descend in a diver's dress to the foundation of the harbor they were
building. In his essays, "Random Memories," he tells of the "dizzy
muddleheaded joy" he had in his surroundings, swaying like a reed, and
grabbing at the fish which darted past him.

In writing afterward of these years he says: "What I gleaned I am sure I
do not know, but indeed I had already my own private determination to be