It may here be proper to notice, that although a considerable quantity of jumpers or boring-irons, picks, and other quarry-tools, had been brought, in good order, for the use of the work; yet, from the extent of work in preparing the foundations, together with the hard and compact nature of the sandstone, of which the Bell Rock is composed, the tools soon became blunt, and the work must have often been completely at a stand, had it not been for the conveniency of having a smith and his forge so near at hand. The writer doubts not that his readers may be at a loss to account for the operation of the bellows and other apparatus upon a sunken rock, and it may therefore be necessary, in the accompanying description of the plates of this work, to give some explanation of this _arcanum_ of Vulcan, on which the work had so great a dependence. The smith’s shop, represented in Plate XI. was of course in _open space_: the large bellows were carried to and from the rock every tide, for the serviceable condition of which, together with the tinder-box, fuel and embers of the former fire, the smith was held responsible. Those who have been placed in situations to feel the inconveniency and want of this useful artizan, will be able to appreciate his value in a case like the present. Mr Smeaton often felt the want of a forge permanently upon the rock, and had the foundation of the Eddystone Light-house required more extensive preparations, this useful implement could hardly have been dispensed with; but the Eddystone rock was so small as hardly to have room for it, in addition to other no less necessary apparatus. Could the operations of the blacksmith, at the Bell Rock, have been continued, from the commencement of the operations, even for half an hour longer every tide than the pickmen or quarriers, it would have added much to the facilities and progress of the work. But a stage or platform, in that case, must have been erected, to which there were a number of intervening obstacles, that more than counter-balanced the temporary inconveniency felt from the want of this additional time. It often happened, to our annoyance and disappointment, in the early state of the work, when the smith was in the middle of a _favourite heat_, in making some useful article, or in sharpening the tools, after the flood-tide had obliged the pickmen to strike work, a sea would come rolling over the rocks, dash out the fire, and endanger his indispensable implement the bellows; or if the sea was smooth, while the smith often stood at work knee-deep in water, the tide rose by imperceptible degrees, first cooling the exterior of the fire-place, or hearth, and then quietly blackening and extinguishing the fire from below. The writer has frequently been amused at the perplexing anxiety of the blacksmith, when coaxing his fire, and endeavouring to avert the effects of the rising tide. In this state of things, the erection