more room, freer air, and more tolerable temperature, than any of their neighbours in the highest storey could obtain, owing to the greater number of persons in that part of the Barrack and its exposure to the heat of the cook’s stove. During the remainder of the month of April and the commencement of May we had frequent stiff gales; and it often happened that the men could not venture out of the Barrack, owing to the heavy sea which swept over the Rock. The crane, too, which had been erected at the wharf for unloading the stones, although its top stood about 8 feet above the Rock, was often buried in the breakers and seemed in hourly danger of being carried away, an event which we were the more ready to fear from our experience in a former season, when the crane disappeared during a heavy westerly gale. The sea on those occasions also broke so heavily on the Barrack, that the windows of my apartment, which were about 55 feet above the sea, were often darkened by the sheet of water which flowed over them after the house had been struck by a wave. From those causes it was not till the 18th May that we were enabled to occupy the Rock in full force; and on the day following we commenced building the 38th course on the top of the last year’s work. After that period we had a long continuance of north-easterly winds, which always brought both smooth water for landing materials and dry weather for building; so that by the 23d of May our work had made such progress and the Tower had risen so high, that the chain of the balance-crane, which had been raised along with the building, by sliding it upwards on the cast-iron pillar or shaft placed in the centre of the Tower, could not reach the top of the _shear-poles_, by which the stones were raised to the level of about 40 feet above the Rock; and it was found necessary to rig from the lowest window a beam or _needle_ (in the manner described at page 155, and as also shewn in Plate IX. of my Father’s _Account of the Bell-Rock Lighthouse_), as an intermediate stage between the top of the Tower and the shear-poles on the Rock. The needle, as already noticed, projected horizontally from the window and the stones were raised by a chain which passed over the sheave at its outer end and was wrought by means of a crab placed in the interior of the Tower. In that manner we continued for about six weeks, with little interruption from the weather, to raise the blocks of stone to the top of the Tower by successive needles from storey to storey; while the mortar, lewis-bats and other lighter materials were raised at once by means of a line wrought by a windlass placed on the Rock.