_7th August._--We this morning took on board various tools and implements for the Rock, together with workmen to the number of four carpenters, sixteen masons and quarriers, and a smith, along with Mr George Middlemiss, as foreman. Having sailed with a northerly wind, we made a landing about noon, and had what may be called our first entire day of work on the Rock. Our work was by no means easy, as we had to erect _shear-poles_ and fix _crabs_ for landing the materials, and to lash every article that was landed, with great care down to ring-bolts on the Rock, which a few of the masons were fixing, while the rest of the people were discharging the vessel. All this was attended with a good deal of trouble, and it required my constant attention to keep everything going on in a fair train, so as to prevent one party of workmen requiring to wait for another; but, after eight hours of very hard work, I had the satisfaction of seeing all the materials which had been landed left in a secure state. The extreme smoothness of the surface of the Rock greatly impeded the landing of materials; for as yet we had no tramways on which wheeled trucks could be moved, and the transport by hand of heavy materials over so irregular and slippery a surface was attended with considerable danger. A short trial was this day made of boring one of the holes for the stancheons or bats, by which the timbers of the Barrack were to be secured to the Rock; and I found, that with a jumper of 3¹⁄₂ inches diameter, a depth of about 3 inches was bored in one hour. The commencement of the operations involved much labour and considerable discomfort; but it invariably happened throughout the work, that in spite of all the fatigue and privation attending a day’s work on this unsheltered Rock, the landsmen were for the most part sorry to exchange it for the ship, which rolled so heavily as to leave few free from sea-sickness, and to deprive most of the workmen of sleep at night, even after their unusually great exertions during the day.