The Smeaton had arrived from Arbroath in the course of the last night, and made fast to her moorings at the eastern buoy, which was nearest to the rock, as will be seen from Plate V. Agreeably to appointment, she had brought off six blocks of granite, for the purpose of making an experiment regarding the landing of the stones on the rock. She also had in tow the praam, or decked boat, brought from Leith astern of the Pharos, of which mention has already been made. This boat, in smooth water, could carry about six or seven tons upon deck. [Sidenote: Various suggestions about landing the stones.] The writer had looked forward to the trial of landing weighty materials upon the rock, as a matter which was to determine an important point in the operations of the Bell Rock light-house, and which could hardly be resolved by any other means than actual trial. This part of the operation had always been a matter of the greatest uncertainty with those conversant in such matters, and it became essential to determine the point at this period, by actual trial, before proceeding to the preparation of the craft and apparatus requisite for the works of next season, which it would not have been safe or prudent to rest upon doubtful hypothesis. In speculating upon this point, some had suggested that each particular stone should be floated to the rock, with a cork-buoy attached to it, while others would convert the float into an air-tank for this purpose; a third proposed to sail over the rock at high water, in a vessel of a flat construction, and drop the stones one after another, while under way, or at anchor on the rock. Others took up a still more extraordinary view of the case, and proposed to build so much of the Light-house ashore, in a kind of coffer-dam or vessel, as would raise the building to the level of the highest tide, and having previously prepared the rock for its reception, they would scuttle the vessel, and settle this ponderous mass, weighing perhaps 1000 tons, at once upon the rock. But it were endless to follow the various conceptions, even of men of experience, upon subjects of this kind. Though some of these propositions were ingeniously conceived, yet they could not be carried into effect in such a situation as the Bell Rock. Taking into view the uncertain state of the weather, the brittle nature of stone, when worked to a delicate edge and formed into angular points,--and, above all, considering the disadvantages that would attend the loss, even of a single stone, by the unavoidable delay it would occasion to the work, which might even in some instances hazard a great part of the building,--the writer judged it safest to keep the vessels that were to bring the stones from the workyard at moorings, laid down at a convenient distance from the rock, so as to enable them to clear it, in case of drifting. He also determined, as the safest method, that their cargoes should be unloaded at these moorings, laid