On Wednesday the efforts of Mr. Bellamy, ably supplemented by those of Mr. Duke and Mr. Shadwell, to make rapid progress with clearing the leat near the well-known Rock Hotel at Head Weir, had been somewhat retarded. Many of the labourers employed were ill-clad, and showed signs of weakness, and when it was found that no sufficient provision had been made to supply them with food, they threw down their shovels and returned to Plymouth. Others, however, worked gallantly on through the night. On Thursday morning, things looked more promising. At an early hour the new contingent of workmen engaged on the previous day, and the two detachments of the military--the men of the Welsh Regiment under Lieutenants de la Chapelle and Ready, and the Marines commanded by Captain Kelly and Lieutenants Mullins and Drake-Brockman--were on the spot, and these, being divided into gangs, set vigorously to work on the leat at various points. During the morning large commissariat supplies were received from Plymouth, and the men, besides having a plentiful supply of food, were served at intervals with hot coffee. Some serious difficulties were encountered, and heavy labour on the part of the civilian labourers and the soldiers was entailed. There were nearly ten miles of leat to be cleared, and much of the snow was frozen into hard solid masses, against which but slow headway could be made. In some places the leat was completely buried under frozen snow of great depth, and for hundreds of yards snow rose in drifts from ten to twelve feet in height, burying the rails guarding the leat, and rendering it difficult to trace its course accurately. The young Welsh soldiers worked well, and the services of the Marines were found invaluable. By nightfall, when work ceased, it was found that the leat had been cleared for a mile and a half from the Head Weir towards Yennadon. On Yennadon Down Lieutenant de la Chapelle's men had cleared the way nearly as far as Dousland, and near the Roborough Reservoir a clearance of three miles had been made. At about six o'clock the troops and civilian labourers, numbering about 450, returned to Yelverton Station, and ultimately, after a vexatious, but, fortunately, not serious mishap, reached Plymouth. Fears were expressed during Thursday night that there would be another snowstorm on Dartmoor, and this proved to be the case. A violent gale raged on the moor, and three feet of snow fell, undoing much of what the heavy toil of the previous day had accomplished. Much of the snow that had been removed from the leat had drifted back, and part of the work had to be done over again.