together
amounted to the length of nearly a mile and a half. The zig-zag path
down the cliff was finished, and at those parts of the main cliff which
were inaccessible in this manner, rope-ladders were substituted, and
thus a communication was formed with the cove at the point where the
derrick was to be stepped.

"All this being done, the large hawsers were rove through the blocks,
their purchases lashed to them, and partially overhauled over the
cliffs. The getting the before-mentioned heavy articles up was most
distressingly laborious, for they were obliged to be carried a greater
part of the distance where the surface was covered with a deep loose
sand, and to this cause may be mainly attributed a complaint of the
heart which subsequently attacked several of the people.

"The derrick, which was now composed of twenty-two pieces united by a
great number of dowels and bolts, thirty-four hoops, and numerous
wooldings[5] of four-inch ropes, was finished on the evening of the
7th, and the clothing fitted on, and I now had arrived at a point which
required much foresight and pre-arrangement, namely, the preparation
for erecting it; and it was necessary to weigh with coolness and
circumspection the mode by which this was to be done.

"A party of about sixty of our best hands were employed in getting the
_Lightning's_ chain and hempen stream cables and large hawsers passed
over and around the faces of the cliffs, and the purchases were
sufficiently overhauled to admit of their reaching the derrick, and the
falls brought to the capstan and crabs, ready for heaving it up. All
who are well acquainted with the character and manners of sailors know
that it is no easy matter to rid them of their habitual heedlessness.
I endeavored to impress them with the need of caution, and the almost
universal answer I got was 'Never fear, sir,' which from the fearless
and careless manner in which it was expressed, was by no means
calculated to remove my apprehensions for their safety.

"The task we had now in hand was one of much danger. The parties
working over the cliffs were some of them slung in bights of rope, some
supported by man-ropes, some assisting each other by joining hands, and
others holding by the uncertain tenure of a tuft of grass or a twig,
while loose fragments of rock, being disturbed by the gear and by the
men who were working on the upper part, were precipitated amidst those
below, while the sharp crags lacerated