During the first half of the season 30 men were engaged 14 hours a day in the preparation of the foundation-pit, which, as already said, was a work of the greatest labour. The Rock, indeed, was in many places so hard as often to make it seem hopeless that tools could make any impression on it. The time employed in the excavation and the number of tools expended on it, were very great, as a pick seldom stood more than three strokes in the harder quartzose veins; but our perseverance was at length amply rewarded by obtaining a foundation so level and so fairly wrought throughout the whole area of a circle 42 feet in diameter, as to present to the view the appearance of a gigantic basin of variegated marble; and so much pleased were the workmen themselves with the result of their protracted toil, that many of them expressed serious regret that the foundation must soon be covered up so, as (we trusted), never to be seen again. In the dressing of the Rock much inconvenience arose from the small splinters which flew out before the tools, sometimes rising to the height of 40 feet, and coming in at the windows of the Barrack; and after several injuries had been sustained, I at length found it necessary to send to Glasgow for fencing masks to protect the men’s faces. In all our work, nothing was more grudged than the occasional loss of half a day in _baling_ out the water from the foundation-pit after it had been filled by a heavy sea. ~Landing of materials on the Rock.~ Before we had made an actual trial of landing stones on a Rock at the distance of 12 miles from the nearest shore, exposed to the incessant beating of Atlantic waves, there was much room for doubt as to the measure of success to be expected; and, as the time approached, I naturally looked to the attempt with increasing anxiety, as to an experiment in a great measure decisive of the future complexion of our operations. Four small vessels, carrying from 16 to 19 tons, had been built at Leith and Dumbarton, for the purpose of carrying the stones on their decks, so as to admit of their being easily lifted by the crane, and so to avoid the risk which would have been incurred by any attempt to raise stones by a crane from the hold of a vessel moored to a rock in the open sea and moving about with every wave. Had that been attempted, the crane would, on many occasions, have been pulled down before the stone could be cleared from the hold. The vessels were very similar to those which were used for the same purpose at the Bell Rock; and I therefore beg leave to refer the reader to page 509, and to Plate XI. of my Father’s account of that work, for a description of them. Being decked all over, to give room for cargo (for they carried nothing in the hold but empty casks for the purpose of floating them in the event of their sustaining any injury), they were towed between Hynish and the Rock by the steamer, and being _cast off_ as near the