nty-five pieces, was
completed, and on the 31st the fourth course of twenty-three pieces.
The fifth course was closed in on the 5th of August. When the sixth
course was completed, which was on the 11th of that month, Smeaton had
the satisfaction to find that the sea did not now invariably wash over
every part of their work at each tide, which had always hitherto been
the case in the course of laying the previous courses. The greatest
difficulties were now considered to be successfully surmounted, as
each succeeding course gave them more time and more room, and they had
brought their work to a level with the highest part of the rock.

Up to this point all the courses had been begun by the stones that
were securely dove-tailed into the rock, and further made fast by
oak-wedges and cement. To receive these wedges, two grooves were cut
in the waist of each stone, from the top to the bottom of the course,
of an inch in depth and three inches in width. The care with which the
foundation-work was carried on may be gathered from Smeaton's
description of the manner of laying each stone. 'The stone to be set
being hung in the tackle, and its bed of mortar spread, was then
lowered into its place, and beat with a heavy wooden maul, and
levelled with a spirit level; and the stone being accurately brought
to its marks, it was then considered as set in its place. The business
now was to retain it exactly in that position, notwithstanding the
utmost violence of the sea might come upon it, before the mortar was
hard enough to resist it. The carpenter now dropped into each groove
two of the oaken wedges, one upon its head, the other with its point
downwards, so that the two wedges in each groove would lie heads and
points. With a bar of iron about two inches and a half broad, a
quarter of an inch thick, and two feet and a half long, the ends being
square, he could easily (as with a rammer) drive down one wedge upon
the other; very gently at first, so that the opposite pairs of wedges
being equally tightened, they would equally resist each other, and the
stone would therefore keep place. A couple of wedges were also, in
like manner, pitched at the top of each groove; the dormant wedge, or
that with the point upward, being held in the hand, while the
drift-wedge, or that with its point downward, was driven with a
hammer. The whole of what remained above the upper surface of the
stone was then cut off with a saw or chisel: and generally, a