ms of religion that he had himself
adopted the resolution of attending the Bell Rock works on the Sunday;
but, as he hoped, from a conviction that it was his bounden duty, on the
strictest principles of morality. At the same time it was intimated
that, if any were of a different opinion, they should be perfectly at
liberty to hold their sentiments without the imputation of contumacy or
disobedience; the only difference would be in regard to the 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 chai