From the dam the canal section all along the hillside and following the ridge, from drop to drop, and out to a point on the mesa a mile beyond, was excavated, a great clean ditch; while from Perro Creek the canal ran northward for six miles to the main camp, curving in the great arc that constituted its line.

Three and a half miles, and complements, constructed at one end; six miles at the other.
Between, five miles of unbroken mesa.

Seven weeks remained for the small camp working down from the north and the great camp pushing from the south to dig through those miles and meet--seven weeks; but in the most bitter season of the year.
It seemed that it was with infinitely greater effort that the two sections of the canals were forced ahead each day.

The surface of the ground was like stone, only by repeated attempts pierced by plows and torn apart; while the subsoil immediately froze if left unworked.

The weaker labourers began to break: the scrawny Mexicans, the debilitated white men, the drifters and the dissatisfied; and they left the camps.
These the labour agencies found it harder and harder to replace as the cold weather persisted, so that the force showed a considerable diminishment.
A few days before Christmas Gretzinger paid Bryant a visit.