PROGRESS OF THE WORKS IN THE YEAR 1809. [Sidenote: 1809, January.] In the month of January 1809, the winds prevailed much from the east and north-east, which never fail to produce a heavy sea on the eastern shores of Great Britain, and particularly at the Bell Rock, from its exposed position to these points. This state of the weather, therefore, rendered it extremely difficult to communicate with the Floating-light, for the purpose of relieving the seamen in their turns ashore, and supplying the ship with provisions and necessaries. [Sidenote: Railways injured, and Bracing chain-bolts unlocked.] It was also found impracticable to land upon the Rock itself sooner in this month than the 20th, when, after several attempts, Mr Francis Watt and Captain Wilson, two of the engineer’s assistants, landed with four seamen, and four artificers with their tools, at 12 noon, and remained till a quarter past 1 P. M. By this time several of the supports of the iron-railways on the Rock had got loose, and two of the castings forming the waggon-track and footpath had broken adrift. One of these was found at a considerable distance from its place, but the other had entirely disappeared, and must have been washed off the Rock, although it weighed upwards of 100 lb. In these gales, no fewer than ten of the bracing-chains of the Beacon were shaken entirely loose, seven of which had unscrewed the tightening-bolts, and the remaining three lifted the pieces of rock into which the chain-bats had been fixed. The tightening-bolts were again screwed up, and pieces of small wire twisted round the points of the screws, to prevent the nuts from unlocking. The three bolts, with their chains, which had lifted the parts of the rock, were disengaged from the Beacon altogether, to prevent injury to the wooden beams, by their motion with the force of the sea; and things were otherwise left in as serviceable a state as the circumstances of a limited stay upon the Rock at this season of the year would admit. It was, upon the whole, highly satisfactory to learn, that the Beacon, this important auxiliary to the operations, had received no material injury, after such a continued tract of stormy weather; the great iron stanchions sunk into the Rock, which kept the main beams in their places, and all the joints and fixtures of the higher parts of the framed work, being quite entire, and without the smallest appearance of having shifted. [Sidenote: Proofs of strong currents in the Sea.]