EXPERIMENTS IN TRADE 235 



counter erected, shawls, muslins," and the like, "dis- 

 played, and everything ready for transacting business. 

 On approaching a settlement they blew a tin trumpet, 

 which announced to the inhabitants their arrival." These 

 "arks," he added, descended from all parts of the Ohio 

 and its tributary streams, but in greatest numbers in 

 the spring months. Although they cost originally about 

 $1.50 per foot of length, when arrived at their destina- 

 tion they would seldom bring more than one-sixth of 

 that amount. From forty to fifty days were commonly 

 required to cover the entire distance of two thousand 

 miles from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. 



Another means of conveyance on the river, frequently 

 used by Audubon, was the keel boat or barge, which, 

 in some cases, was also roofed and would hold about 

 two hundred barrels of flour. 1 When assisted by oars in 

 the bow, it could reduce the time of a journey to New 

 Orleans by ten or fifteen days. These barges were 

 pushed up stream with the aid of setting poles at an 

 average rate of about twenty miles a day, or, if loaded, 

 they were laboriously "cordelled," or drawn by the hands 

 of men who trudged along the banks pulling at the cor- 

 delle. 



The chief pleasures which Audubon's business ven- 

 tures in the West seem to have afforded him were his 

 leisurely journey by river and long horseback rides to 

 Philadelphia to buy goods, when he could roam through 

 his "beautiful and darling forests of Kentucky, Ohio, 

 and Pennsylvania," which gave him grand opportunities 

 to make observations upon birds and animal life of 

 every sort. He would seldom hesitate to swerve from 

 his course to study his favorites, and has related how 

 on one occasion, when driving before him several horses 



1 Vincent Nolte, Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres (Bibl. No. 176). 



