a boat by signal from
the tender. A small boat, which could be lowered at pleasure, was
therefore suspended by a pair of davits projected from the cook-house,
the keel being about thirty feet from the rock. This boat, with its
tackle, was put under the charge of James Glen, of whose exertions on
the beacon mention has already been made, and who, having in early life
been a seaman, was also very expert in the management of a boat. A
life-buoy was likewise suspended from the bridge, to which a coil of
line two hundred fathoms in length was attached, which could be let out
to a person falling into the water, or to the people in the boat, should
they not be able to work her with the oars.

Thursday, 7th June.

To-day twelve stones were landed on the rock, being the remainder of the
_Patriot's_ cargo; and the artificers built the thirty-ninth course,
consisting of fourteen stones. The Bell Rock works had now a very busy
appearance, as the lighthouse was daily getting more into form. Besides
the artificers and their cook, the writer and his servant were also
lodged on the beacon, counting in all twenty-nine; and at low-water the
landing-master's crew, consisting of from twelve to fifteen seamen,
were employed in transporting the building materials, working the
landing apparatus on the rock, and dragging the stone waggons along the
railways.

Friday, 8th June.

In the course of this day the weather varied much. In the morning it was
calm, in the middle part of the day there were light airs of wind from
the south, and in the evening fresh breezes from the east. The barometer
in the writer's cabin in the beacon-house oscillated from 30 inches to
30.42, and the weather was extremely pleasant. This, in any situation,
forms one of the chief comforts of life; but, as may easily be
conceived, it was doubly so to people stuck, as it were, upon a pinnacle
in the middle of the ocean.

Sunday, 10th June.

One of the praam-boats had been brought to the rock with eleven stones,
notwithstanding the perplexity which attended the getting of those
formerly landed taken up to the building. Mr. Peter Logan, the foreman
builder, interposed and prevented this cargo from being delivered; but
the landing-master's crew were exceedingly averse to this arrangement,
from an idea that "ill luck" would in future attend the praam, her
cargo, and those who navigated her, from thus reversing her voyage. It
may be noticed that this was the first