56 A PEEP AT 



a day ; in favorable weather, one hundred men are 

 sometimes employed at once. When a thaw or a fall 

 of rain occurs, it entirely unfits the ice for market, by 

 rendering it opaque and porous ; and occasionally snow 

 is immediately followed by rain, and that again by 

 frost, forming snow-ice, which is valueless, and must 

 be removed by the ' plane.' The operation of 

 planing is similar to that of cutting. 



" In addition to filling their ice-houses at the lake 

 and in the large towns, the company fill a large num- 

 ber of private ice-houses during the winter, all the ice 

 for these purposes being transported by railway. It 

 will easily be believed that the expense of providing 

 tools, building houses, furnishing labor, and construct- 

 ing and keeping up the railway is very great ; but the 

 traffic is so extensive, and the management of the 

 trade so good, that the ice can be furnished at a very 

 trifling expense." 



At South Boston, for the first time, I saw my friend 

 and talented countryman, the Rev. Joseph H. Clinch, 

 A. M., Rector of St. Matthew's Church ; he is one of 

 the most eminent ministers belonging to the Episcopal 

 Church in America. Mr. Clinch is at present en- 

 gaged in writing on the origin of languages, a work 

 involving immense labor and research. One of the 



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