pieces without considerable trouble in breaking it. At half past
seven P.M. we weighed our anchors and began to warp up the canal,
but the northerly wind blew so fresh, and the people were so much
fatigued, having been almost constantly at work for nineteen
hours, that it was midnight before we reached the termination of
our first day's labour.

All hands were again set to work on the morning of the 25th, when
it was proposed to sink the pieces of ice, as they were cut, under
the floe, instead of floating them out, the latter mode having now
become impracticable on account of the lower part of the canal,
through which the ships had passed, being, hard frozen during the
night. To effect this, it was necessary for a certain number of
men to stand upon one end of the piece of ice which it was
intended to sink, while other parties, hauling at the same time
upon ropes attached to the opposite end, dragged the block under
that part of the floe on which the people stood. The officers of
both ships took the lead in this employ, several of them standing
up to their knees in water frequently during the day, with the
thermometer generally at 12 deg., and never higher than 16 deg. At six
P.M. we began to move the ships. The Griper was made fast astern
of the Hecla, and the two ships' companies being divided on each
bank of the canal, with ropes from the Hecla's gangways, soon drew
the ships along to the end of our second day's work.

Sunday, 26th.--I should on every account have been glad to make
this a day of rest to the officers and men; but the rapidity with
which the ice increased in thickness, in proportion as the general
temperature of the atmosphere diminished, would have rendered a
day's delay of serious importance. I ordered the work, therefore,
to be continued at the usual time in the morning; and such was the
spirited and cheerful manner in which this order was complied
with, as well as the skill which had now been acquired in the art
of sawing and sinking the ice, that although the thermometer was
at 6 deg. in the morning, and rose no higher than 9 deg. during the day,
we had completed the canal at noon, having effected more in four
hours than on either of the two preceding days. The whole length
of this canal was four thousand and eighty-two yards, or nearly
two miles and one third, and the average thickness of the ice was
seven inches.

At half past one P.M. we began to track the ships along in the
same manner