During the week, while we had been engaged in fitting up the main timbers of the barrack, the weather had been very fine; and except the long hours of toil and the sea-sickness on board the vessel, there was nothing to complain of; but the economy of our life while moored for days off the Rock, was somewhat singular. We landed at four o’clock every morning to commence work, and generally breakfasted on the Rock at eight, at which time the boat arrived with large pitchers of tea, bags of biscuit, and _canteens_ of beef. Breakfast was despatched in half an hour and work again resumed, till about two o’clock, which hour brought the dinner, differing in its materials from breakfast only in the addition of a thick pottage of vegetables, and the substitution of beer for tea. Dinner occupied no longer time than breakfast, and like it, was succeeded by another season of toil, which lasted until eight and sometimes till nine o’clock, when it was so dark that we could scarcely scramble to the boats, and were often glad to avail ourselves of all the assistance we could obtain from an occasional flash of a lantern and from following the voices. Once on the deck of the little tender and the boats hoisted in, the materials of breakfast were again produced under the name of supper; but the heaving of the vessel damped the animation which attended the meals on the Rock, and destroyed the appetite of the men, who, with few exceptions, were so little _sea-worthy_ as to prefer messing on the Rock even during rain, to facing the closeness of the forecastle. As I generally retired to the cabin to write up my notes, when that was practicable, and to wait the arrival of my own refection, I was sometimes considerably amused by the regularity with which the men chose their mess-masters, and the desire which some displayed for the important duties of carving and distributing the rations. Even the short time that could be snatched from the half-hour’s interval at dinner, was generally devoted to a nap; and the amount of hard labour and long exposure to the sun, which could hardly be reckoned at less than 16 hours a-day, prevented much conversation over supper: yet, in many, the love of controversy is so deeply rooted, that I have often, from my small cabin, overheard the political topics of the day, with regard to Church and State, very gravely discussed on deck, over a pipe of tobacco. Perhaps the great heat below, where upwards of twenty people were confined, might in some measure account for this wakefulness on board the Tender. ~Shoals of Medusæ seen.~