s. For the more speedy and effectual working of the
several tackles in raising the materials as the building advanced in
height, and there being a great extent of railway to attend to, which
required constant repairs, two additional millwrights were added to the
complement on the rock, which, including the writer, now counted
thirty-one in all. So crowded was the men's barrack that the beds were
ranged five tier in height, allowing only about one foot eight inches
for each bed. The artificers commenced this morning at five o'clock,
and, in the course of the day, they laid the forty-eighth and
forty-ninth courses, consisting each of sixteen blocks. From the
favourable state of the weather, and the regular manner in which the
work now proceeded, the artificers had generally from four to seven
extra hours' work, which, including their stated wages of 3s. 4d.,
yielded them from 5s. 4d. to about 6s. 10d. per day besides their board;
even the postage of their letters was paid while they were at the Bell
Rock. In these advantages the foremen also shared, having about double
the pay and amount of premiums of the artificers. The seamen being less
out of their element in the Bell Rock operations than the landsmen,
their premiums consisted in a slump sum payable at the end of the
season, which extended from three to ten guineas.

As the laying of the floors was somewhat tedious, the landing-master and
his crew had got considerably beforehand with the building artificers in
bringing materials faster to the rock than they could be built. The
seamen having, therefore, some spare time, were occasionally employed
during fine weather in dredging or grappling for the several mushroom
anchors and mooring-chains which had been lost in the vicinity of the
Bell Rock during the progress of the work by the breaking loose and
drifting of the floating buoys. To encourage their exertions in this
search, five guineas were offered as a premium for each set they should
find; and, after much patient application, they succeeded to-day in
hooking one of these lost anchors with its chain.

It was a general remark at the Bell Rock, as before noticed, that fish
were never plenty in its neighbourhood excepting in good weather.
Indeed, the seamen used to speculate about the state of the weather from
their success in fishing. When the fish disappeared at the rock, it was
considered a sure indication that a gale was not far off, as the fish
seemed to seek sh