Aid of hands and instruments being now obtained, the thin sheet of ice was partly cut out and the fragments removed till the attached line could be got at. When effected, it was again slacked out of the boat, and the end firmly secured to the slender part of the body of the fish adjoining the tail. The two lobes of the tail were then partly cut off, so as to hang down in the water as sustained by a slight attachment, and thus by their gravity to help to sink the carcass whilst they no longer were calculated to catch the irregularities of the submerged surface of the ice, as the tail, when perfect in structure and position, had previously done. A considerable weight, I believe, in sand-bags, was also hung upon the “bight” of the line for helping to sink the fish clear of obstructions above, and, finally, the line being hauled on in the boat from whence the fish had been originally harpooned, it progressively yielded to the force applied, and in due time the loud and cheerful huzzas of the sailors announced the completion of the capture in its appearance outside! SECTION III.—_Improvements and Inventions._ We have had occasion, in the course of our memorial records, to describe several important inventions or improvements of my Father’s in connection with his professional occupations. There remain yet to be mentioned a variety of other contributions, of a like order, to Greenland apparatus or operations pertaining to the fishery, and also to objects of public consideration generally. As to whale-fishing apparatus and operations, his contributions in the form of new contrivances and improvements were numerous, and, many of them, of considerable importance. These, we shall not attempt to describe in any measure of detail, but chiefly in the manner of notices. In the stowage of his ship, for the economising of space and facilitating the depositing of cargo, his improvements were valuable. His _casks_ he had built on a plan adapted for the accurate filling of the space in the “hold,” comprising special deviations from the general size and form in the introduction of large “leagers” for the midships (on the kelson), adjusted, in length, to the exact spaces of the stantions of the hold beams, as also of narrow, short, or irregularly formed casks for the extremities of the hold, fore and aft. The _deck_ on the hold beams, instead of being laid, as usual, in a continuous series of planks, was cut up into hatches, and laid level betwixt the beams, so as, whilst forming a flat and even platform when laid down, to open out the hold, on the removal of the hatch-like planking, without other incumbrance against the stowing and filling of the casks beneath, except the naked beams and their essential fastenings. In the suspension of the _boats_, with regard to facility in lowering or hoisting, as well as for safety, his improvements were of great importance.