continued from part 1. " 'In descending the lock is filled and the boat glides in on the level, and the upper gates are closed, and the water drawn from the lower gates until the water is depressed to the level below. This operation occupied, in passing up, about four minutes, and in descending about three minutes. The average height of the lock is about ten feet. There were men hired for lock tenders, whose duty was, for boats ascending, to see the lower gates opened, and after the boat glided into the lock, to close the lower gates, and draw the water from the upper level until the lock was full, and then open the upper gates and let the boat pass out upon the level; and when the boats were descending, locks were to be filled and upper gates opened so that the boat would glide in. On the 4th of July the 'Lady Carrington' carried excursion parties to Scott's Pond, six miles, amid great rejoicings.' The paper then added the following amusing incident: 'A Mr. Arnold, who keeps a store opposite Smith Street, in company with a Mr. Olney, was sitting on a box or railing of the Boat 'Lady Carrington' and was very earnest telling a story when the Boat struck the bank of the canal, and overboard he went. After pulling him in all wet through, he sat down and said, 'as I was saying' and went on with his story as though nothing had happened.' If you had been a resident of Providence in early 1800's, all the foregoing would have been perfectly familiar to you, for you probably would have been one of the citizens on the 'Lady Carrington' or, as least, one of the spectators on the bank or some housetop. The completion and opening of the Blackstone Canal in 1828 was a great event in Providence history and one that deserved acclaim. The year itself was doubly significant to the business interests of the town, for, before it was out, the Arcade, a pioneer building in the present business section of the city, had been finished. Yet the canal served only for twenty years and then was abandoned, while the Arcade still prospers, though encircled by modern business edifices. How easily the situation might have been reversed is a story that evolves out of the story of the canal itself." continued in part 3.