language of disappointment, as little judgment could be
formed of what any soil in this country would produce until it had been
properly worked, dressed, cleansed, and purged of that sour quality that
was naturally inherent in it, which it derived from the droppings of wet
from the leaves of gum and other trees, and which were known to be of an
acrid destructive nature.

Another barrack for officers was got up this month at Sydney; but, for
want of tiles, was only partly covered in. The millwrights Wilkinson and
Baughan had got up the frames and roofs of their respective mill-houses,
and, while waiting for their being tiled, were proceeding with preparing
the wood-work of their mills.

The great want of tiles that was occasionally felt, proceeded from there
being only one person in the place who was capable of moulding tiles, and
he could never burn more than thirty thousand tiles in six weeks, being
obliged to burn a large quantity of bricks in the same kilns. It required
near sixty-nine thousand bricks to complete the building of one barrack,
and twenty-one thousand tiles to cover it in. The number of tiles
rendered useless by carriage, and destroyed in the kilns, was estimated
at about three thousand in each kiln, and fifteen thousand were generally
burnt off at a time.

To furnish bricks for these barracks, and other buildings, three gangs
were constantly at work, finding employment for three overseers and about
eighty convicts.

To convey these materials from the brickfield to the barrack-ground, a
distance of about three-quarters of a mile, three brick-carts were
employed, each drawn by twelve men, under the direction of one overseer.
Seven hundred tiles, or three hundred and fifty bricks, were brought by
each cart, and every cart in the day brought either five loads of bricks,
or four of tiles. To bring in the timber necessary for these and other
buildings, four timber-carriages were employed, each being drawn by
twenty-four men. In addition to these, to each carriage were annexed two
fallers, and one overseer, making a total of two hundred and twenty-eight
men, who must be employed in any such heavy labour as the building of a
barrack or a storehouse, exclusive of the sawyers, carpenters, smiths,
painters, glaziers, and stonemasons, without whose labour they could not
be completed.

The expense of victualling and clothing these people (both their
provisions and the materials for making their clothes being a