During the early part of the season the weather was intensely cold, with showers of sleet and heavier showers of spray, which dashed round us in all directions, to the great discomfort of the poor masons, whose apartments did not admit of a large wardrobe, while they had not the benefit of much room for drying their clothes at the small _coboose_ or cooking-stove in the Barrack. For days together, also, the men were left without building materials, owing to the impossibility of landing them, or, what was worse, without the power of building what we had on hand in consequence of the violence of the winds. During such times we often felt much anxiety about the safety of the stones which we had piled on the rock ready for being built; and it took no small trouble, by the occasional application of the crane, to save them from being swept into the sea by the surf. Nothing struck me more than the illusive effect produced on the mind by the great waves which rolled past the rock. The rapidity of their movements, and the noise which accompanied their passage through the gullies and rents of the rugged reef, seemed to give them the appearance of being much larger than they really were; and, even when viewed from the Tower, after it had risen to the height of 30 feet, they seemed, on approaching the rock, to be on the eve of washing right over the top of the building and sweeping all before them into the sea. It was a long time before, by continually watching the waves and comparing their apparent height with the results of their impact on the rock, we were enabled to correct our notions of their magnitude, so as to mark the approach of their crested curling heads with composure; and some of the party never became sufficiently familiarized with those visitors, to avoid suddenly looking round when the rush of a breaker was heard behind them, or recoiling a few paces when they saw its towering crest apparently about to burst in a torrent over their heads. It was only after a long residence on the rock and continual experimental observation, that I acquired confidence to approach within a few feet of the point which I expected the breakers to reach. I occasionally suffered for my temerity, by being thoroughly drenched with spray; but by long perseverance, I attained considerable skill in predicting the limits of their influence, though ever and anon an extraordinary wave overthrew all our confidence, by bursting far above the boundaries which we had assigned in our minds. That, however, did not generally occur in calm weather, but after strong gales from the N.W., when the waves had assumed the larger and more flattened form known by the name of the _ground-swell_. To gauge the height of those waves by means of a vertical rod, graduated with large divisions, so as to be read at a little distance, as the waves washed it in passing, was an object I had long in view; but I found it utterly impossible