on decked praam-boats, and towed to the rock by the landing-master’s crew, at low water, when the artificers were at work, and ready to lay and secure the stones in their places on the building. To put this to the test of actual experiment, the trial praam-boat had been built, and the six rough blocks of stone were brought to the rock. [Sidenote: Experiment of landing six blocks of Granite.] The middle part of this day was occupied by the writer on board of the Smeaton, at her moorings, where he carefully attended to the process of bringing the praam alongside, fixing her head and stern-ropes, and stationing the seamen at their respective posts, for the purpose of landing this small, but, in his view, important cargo. The mode by which the stones were taken out of the Smeaton’s hold, and lowered on the praam’s deck, will be understood from Plate XI. This was done by means of a gaff-boom, which traversed upon the Smeaton’s mast, with the necessary tackles for guying it. An essential part of this tackle was a _travelling-crance_, or ring of iron, by which the stone might be lifted either at the extremities or at the central parts of the boom, as best suited its position in the ship’s hold, or its intended place on the praam’s deck. The length of this gaff-boom was thirteen feet, being sufficient for lowering the stone upon the praam. Another part of this apparatus, for lifting the stone, was a _winch_, fixed before the Smeaton’s mast, consisting of a wheel two feet in diameter, worked by a pinion. The stone being raised from the vessel’s hold, was laid on her deck, in order to shift the crance tackle to the extremity of the gaff-boom. The chief charge of the stone was then taken by the landing-master, till it was laid on the praam’s deck, landed on the rock, and ultimately delivered over to the foreman builder. In the act of working this apparatus, one man was placed at each of the guy-tackles, who also assisted at the purchase-tackle for raising the stone; and one of the ablest and most active of the crew was appointed to hold on the end of the tackle-fall or purchase, which often required all his strength, and his utmost agility in letting go, for the purpose of lowering the stone at the instant when the word “Lower” was heard. Much depended upon the promptitude with which this part of the operation was performed, in a rolling sea, as our nautical readers will readily understand. For this purpose, the man who held the end of the tackle placed himself before the mast in a sitting, but more frequently in a lying posture, with his feet stretched under the winch, and abutting against the mast, as, by this means, he was enabled to exert his greatest strength. The signal being given by the men in the hold, that the Lewis-bat was fixed into the stone, and the tackle hooked, every man took his post. If the stone was very weighty, the two men who were to receive it on board of the praam, assisted in working