vident marks of perplexity depicted on their countenances. The
landing-master, conceiving blame might be attached to him for allowing
the boat to leave the rock, still kept at a distance. At this critical
moment Mr. Stevenson was standing upon an elevated part of the rock,
where he endeavoured to mark the progress of the 'Smeaton,' not a
little surprised that her crew did not cut the praam adrift which
greatly retarded her way. The workmen looked steadfastly at their
leader, and turned occasionally towards the vessel still far to
leeward. All this passed with the most perfect silence, and the
melancholy solemnity of the group was such that, Mr. Stevenson states,
it left an impression never to be effaced from his mind.

In the meantime Mr. Stevenson was considering various schemes which
might be adopted for the general safety of the party, in hopes that
the 'Smeaton' might be able to pick up the boats to leeward when they
were obliged to leave the rock. He was, accordingly, about to address
the artificers on the perilous nature of their situation, and to
propose that all should unstrip their upper clothing, when the higher
parts of the rock were laid under water,--that the seamen should
remove every unnecessary weight and encumbrance from the boats, and a
specified number of men should go into each boat, and that the
remainder should hang by the gunwales, while the boats were to be
rowed gently towards the 'Smeaton,' as the course of the 'Pharos' or
floating-light lay rather to windward of the rock. But, when he
attempted to speak, his mouth was so parched that his tongue refused
utterance, and he says, 'I now learned by experience that the saliva
is as necessary as the tongue itself for speech.' He then turned to
one of the pools on the rock, and drank a little salt-water, which
produced immediate relief; and his delight was in no small degree
increased when, on rising from this nauseous beverage, some one called
out, 'A boat!' 'A boat!' and on looking round, at no great distance, a
large boat was seen through the haze making towards the rock.

The effect of this accident was, that when the bell rung next morning,
and the workmen were mustered, out of twenty-six, only eight, besides
the foreman and seamen, appeared on deck to accompany the engineer to
the rock. 'The use of argument to persuade the men to embark in cases
of this kind would have been out of place, as it is not only
discomfort, or even the risk of the los