The third season was commenced early in the spring of 1809. The first works consisted in laying down mooring-chains with floating-buoys, for mooring the stone-lighters and praam-boats; the beacon was also fitted out as a more permanent residence for the workmen, in order to lessen the amount of sickly motion which is so distressing to landsmen in a rough sea. By the end of June the men were able to work upon the masonry while the rock was under water; and on the 8th July, for the first time, the tide ceased to overflow the building at low water. With considerable exertion the solid part of the building, which reached to the height of thirty feet, was completed by September. By continuing the works a month or two longer a much greater height might have been attained, but as the engineer foresaw that a diligent employment of the next season would suffice for the completion of the work, he deemed it advisable to leave the house in its present solid defensible posture, on which the sea had much less hold, than if part of the hollow portion had been built. The winter months were occupied in preparing the upper courses; but in consequence of severe frosts, several excellent and valuable stones from the Mylnefield quarry were destroyed by absorption of moisture from the air, which moisture expanding in the act of freezing, split the stones, and rendered them useless. It was therefore determined to construct the cornice of the building, and the parapet of the light-room of the Liver Rock, of the Craig-Leith quarry, celebrated for its durability and beauty, and for its property of not being liable to be affected by the action of frost. These stones were prepared at Edinburgh during the winter, and the iron frame-work, and the several compartments of the light-room got ready. Having during two seasons landed and built upwards of one thousand four hundred tons of stone upon the rock, while the work was low down in the water, and before the beacon was habitable; and finding that it did not now require more than about seven hundred tons to complete the masonry, there was every prospect of finishing the lighthouse during the season. But as the success of the work depended wholly upon the stability of the beacon, every possible attention was bestowed upon it, and visits made to the rock during the winter months when the weather would allow.