n drying and adjusting their wet clothes, and one or two amused
their companions with the violin and German flute.

About seven in the evening the signal bell for landing on the rock was
again rung, when every man was at his quarters. In this service it was
thought more appropriate to use the bell than to _pipe_ to quarters, as
the use of this instrument is less known to the mechanic than the sound
of the bell. The landing, as in the morning, was at the eastern harbour.
During this tide the seaweed was pretty well cleared from the site of
the operations, and also from the tracks leading to the different
landing-places; for walking upon the rugged surface of the Bell Rock,
when covered with seaweed, was found to be extremely difficult and even
dangerous. Every hand that could possibly be occupied was now employed
in assisting the smith to fit up the apparatus for his forge. At 9 p.m.
the boats returned to the tender, after other two hours' work, in the
same order as formerly--perhaps as much gratified with the success that
attended the work of this day as with any other in the whole course of
the operations. Although it could not be said that the fatigues of this
day had been great, yet all on board retired early to rest. The sea
being calm, and no movement on deck, it was pretty generally remarked in
the morning that the bell awakened the greater number on board from
their first sleep; and though this observation was not altogether
applicable to the writer himself, yet he was not a little pleased to
find that thirty people could all at once become so reconciled to a
night's quarters within a few hundred paces of the Bell Rock.

Wednesday, 19th Aug.

Being extremely anxious at this time to get forward with fixing the
smith's forge, on which the progress of the work at present depended,
the writer requested that he might be called at daybreak to learn the
landing-master's opinion of the weather from the appearance of the
rising sun, a criterion by which experienced seamen can generally judge
pretty accurately of the state of the weather for the following day.
About five o'clock, on coming upon deck, the sun's upper limb or disc
had just begun to appear as if rising from the ocean, and in less than a
minute he was seen in the fullest splendour; but after a short interval
he was enveloped in a soft cloudy sky, which was considered emblematical
of fine weather. His rays had not yet sufficiently dispelled the clouds
which