pay.

Upon stating this much, he stepped into his boat,
requesting all who were so disposed to follow him. The

sailors, from their habits, found no scruple on this subject,
and all of the artificers, though a little tardy, also

embarked, excepting four of the masons, who, from the
beginning, mentioned that they would decline working on

Sundays. It may here be noticed that throughout the whole of
the operations it was observable that the men wrought, if

possible, with more keenness upon the Sundays than at other
times from an impression that they were engaged in a work of

imperious necessity, which required every possible exertion.
On returning to the floating light, after finishing the tide's

work, the boats were received by the part of the ship's crew
left on board with the usual attention of handing ropes to the

boats and helping the artificers on board; but the four masons
who had absented themselves from the work did not appear upon

deck.
[Monday, 24th Aug.]

The boats left the floating light at a quarter-past nine
o'clock this morning, and the work began at three-quarters

past nine; but as the neap-tides were approaching the working
time at the rock became gradually shorter, and it was now with

difficulty that two and a half hours' work could be got. But
so keenly had the workmen entered into the spirit of the

beacon-house operations, that they continued to bore the holes
in the rock till some of them were knee-deep in water.

The operations at this time were entirely directed to the
erection of the beacon, in which every man felt an equal

interest, as at this critical period the slightest casualty to
any of the boats at the rock might have been fatal to himself

individually, while it was perhaps peculiar to the writer more
immediately to feel for the safety of the whole. Each log or

upright beam of the beacon was to be fixed to the rock by two
strong and massive bats or stanchions of iron. These bats,

for the fixture of the principal and diagonal beams and
bracing chains, required fifty-four holes, each measuring two

inches in diameter and eighteen inches in depth. There had
already been so considerable a progress made in boring and

excavating the holes that the writer's hopes of getting the
beacon erected this year began to be more and more confirmed,

although it was now advancing towards what was considered the
latter end of the proper working season at the Bell Rock. The

foreman joiner, Mr. Francis Watt, was accordingly appointed to
attend at the rock to-day, when the necessary levels were

taken for the step or seat of each particular beam of the
beacon, that they might be cut to their respective lengths, to

suit the inequalities of the rock; several of the stanchions
were also tried into their places, and other necessary

observations made, to prevent mistakes on the application of
the apparatus, and to facilitate the operations when the beams

came to be set up, which would require to be done in the
course of a single tide.

[Tuesday, 25th Aug.]
We had now experienced an almost unvaried tract of light

airs of easterly wind, with clear weather in the fore-part of
the day and fog in the evenings. To-day, however, it sensibly

changed; when the wind came to the south-west, and blew a
fresh breeze. At nine a.m. the bell rung, and the boats were

hoisted out, and though the artificers were now pretty well
accustomed to tripping up and down the sides of the floating

light, yet it required more seamanship this morning than
usual. It therefore afforded some merriment to those who had

got fairly seated in their respective boats to see the
difficulties which attended their companions, and the

hesitating manner in which they quitted hold of the man-ropes
in leaving the ship. The passage to the rock was tedious, and

the boats did not reach it till half-past ten.
It being now the period of neap-tides, the water only

partially left the rock, and some of the men who were boring
on the lower ledges of the site of the beacon stood knee-deep

in water. The situation of the smith to-day was particularly
disagreeable, but his services were at all times

indispensable. As the tide did not leave the site of the
forge, he stood in the water, and as there was some roughness

on the surface it was with considerable difficulty that, with
the assistance of the sailors, he was enabled to preserve

alive his fire; and, while his feet were immersed in water,
his face was not only scorched but continually exposed to

volumes of smoke, accompanied with sparks from the fire, which
were occasionally set up owing to the strength and direction

of the wind.
[Wednesday, 26th Aug.]

The wind had shifted this morning to N.N.W., with rain,
and was blowing what sailors call a fresh breeze. To speak,

perhaps, somewhat more intelligibly to the general reader, the
wind was such that a fishing-boat could just carry full sail.

But as it was of importance, specially in the outset of the
business, to keep up the spirit of enterprise for landing on

all practicable occasions, the writer, after consulting with
the landing-master, ordered the bell to be rung for embarking,

and at half-past eleven the boats reached the rock, and left
it again at a quarter-past twelve, without, however, being

able to do much work, as the smith could not be set to work
from the smallness of the ebb and the strong breach of sea,

which lashed with great force among the bars of the forge.
Just as we were about to leave the rock the wind shifted

to the S.W., and, from a fresh gale, it became what seamen
term a hard gale, or such as would have required the fisherman

to take in two or three reefs in his sail. It is a curious
fact that the respective tides of ebb and flood are apparent

upon the shore about an hour and a half sooner than at the
distance of three or four miles in the offing. But what seems

chiefly interesting here is that the tides around this small
sunken rock should follow exactly the same laws as on the

extensive shores of the mainland. When the boats left the
Bell Rock to-day it was overflowed by the flood-tide, but the

floating light did not swing round to the flood-tide for more
than an hour afterwards. Under this disadvantage the boats

had to struggle with the ebb-tide and a hard gale of wind, so
that it was with the greatest difficulty that they reached the

floating light. Had this gale happened in spring-tides when
the current was strong we must have been driven to sea in a

very helpless condition.
The boat which the writer steered was considerably behind

the other, one of the masons having unluckily broken his oar.
Our prospect of getting on board, of course, became doubtful,

and our situation was rather perilous, as the boat shipped so
much sea that it occupied two of the artificers to bale and

clear her of water. When the oar gave way we were about half
a mile from the ship, but, being fortunately to windward, we

got into the wake of the floating light, at about 250 fathoms
astern, just as the landing-master's boat reached the vessel.

He immediately streamed or floated a life-buoy astern, with a