writer and his assistants kept as much
as possible in motion. Having remained more than an hour upon the rock,
the boats left it at half-past nine; and, after getting on board, the
writer recommended to the artificers, as the best mode of getting into a
state of comfort, to strip off their wet clothes and go to bed for an
hour or two. No further inconveniency was felt, and no one seemed to
complain of the affection called "catching cold."

Friday, 18th Sept.

An important occurrence connected with the operations of this season was
the arrival of the _Smeaton_ at four p.m., having in tow the six
principal beams of the beacon-house, together with all the stanchions
and other work on board for fixing it on the rock. The mooring of the
floating light was a great point gained, but in the erection of the
beacon at this late period of the season new difficulties presented
themselves. The success of such an undertaking at any season was
precarious, because a single day of bad weather occurring before the
necessary fixtures could be made might sweep the whole apparatus from
the rock. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the writer had determined
to make the trial, although he could almost have wished, upon looking at
the state of the clouds and the direction of the wind, that the
apparatus for the beacon had been still in the workyard.

Saturday, 19th Sept.

The main beams of the beacon were made up in two separate rafts, fixed
with bars and bolts of iron. One of these rafts, not being immediately
wanted, was left astern of the floating light, and the other was kept in
tow by the _Smeaton_, at the buoy nearest to the rock. The Lighthouse
yacht rode at another buoy with all hands on board that could possibly
be spared out of the floating light. The party of artificers and seamen
which landed on the rock counted altogether forty in number. At
half-past eight o'clock a derrick, or mast of thirty feet in height, was
erected and properly supported with guy-ropes, for suspending the block
for raising the first principal beam of the beacon; and a winch machine
was also bolted down to the rock for working the purchase-tackle.

Upon raising the derrick, all hands on the rock spontaneously gave three
hearty cheers, as a favourable omen of our future exertions in pointing
out more permanently the position of the rock. Even to this single spar
of timber, could it be preserved, a drowning man might lay hold. When
the _Smeaton_ drifte