26 WESTERN CAN'AL. 



will make a good ice road in winter, but I have 

 no faith in this opinion. The use of it for such 

 purpose will be but short. It will be in use for 

 vessels about ten months in a year ; and what is 

 not a little extraordinary, it freezes later, and 

 thaws sooner, than natural waters. The philoso- 

 phy of this fact I will endeavor to develope on 

 some future occasion, but such you may rely on 

 it is the case. When the Onondaga Lake, which 

 lies below the canal, was closed up with ice last 

 spring, the latter was open and navigable. By 

 the continual passage of boats in winter, the canal 

 can be prevented from freezing ; and when frozen, 

 a vessel may open its way by placing stampers 

 for breaking ice at its head, as I have seen in the 

 Forth and Clyde canal, where they are worked 

 by the steam engine that propels the barge. 



LETTER VI. 



My Dear Sir, 



Before leaving London I bought " An account 

 of the Great Western Canal of New-York, with 

 an illustrative map," which was reprinted at that 

 great literary mart, and when I arrived here, the 

 great outlines of the country and of the canal 



