Experience and practice, in the handling of runs and managing the progress of the stowing of the ice cakes, attest the value of system in this department. To do the necessary work with as much despatch as possible requires close attention to details, and watchfulness, that the labor and efforts of the men are properly directed and distributed. The runs outside the house are permanent, and arranged in galleries, about five feet apart, with connecting runs from each gallery to the incline. The top run is placed well up to the plate. At each intersection of the incline and runs to the galleries, there is a gate, which may be removed from the face of the incline, thus affording access from the incline to the runs. The gate at the lower run being open, the ice cakes all pass on to the first run, and enter the house at this height. When the house has been filled with ice to the height of the first run, or one or two courses higher, the level of the house is then too high to handle the ice over the lower run. The incline gate is now placed in position, shutting off the first run, and the ice is raised upon the incline to the height of the second run, and passes into the house at this level. It is now necessary to rearrange the runs within the ice house. They must be uncoupled from the first gallery, and raised up and secured at the height of the second gallery. The under blocking and bracing is removed, and the runs set to one side. Before they are disturbed, a number of ice cakes are run in, and left near the entrance, to be stowed in the space the runs and staging occupied, directly in front of the entrance. Unless care is taken, this filling in will be done with irregularity, and more or less broken ice will be left among the good cakes, causing loss by wastage and breakage, when the house is opened up. This filling in under the runs suspends the ordinary work of stowing, and is attended with some loss of time. After the cakes are all in place, the house runs are raised up, blocked and braced in position, the connecting runs coupled on, and a new line of runs conducts the ice from the second gallery to the further part of the room. A system of winding drums, placed in the roof timbers, with ropes attached to the runs, at either end, saves time and labor, in adjusting the house runs to the levels of the different galleries; also, in shifting them, as they are raised to the level of the courses, as the cakes are placed. CLOSING AND CARING FOR THE HOUSE.--When the room has been filled to the level of the wall plate, the ice is covered with dry planing-mill shavings or sawdust, ten or twelve inches deep. The entrance opening is closed, and filled in with sawdust, or other packing. The harvest being secured, the ice house carefully closed, and all chance for circulation prevented by a top dressing, it requires regular attendance once a day, to trim the top covering, if any part of it should sink into the crevices between the ice cakes.